Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA.
Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
J Genet Couns. 2022 Apr;31(2):411-423. doi: 10.1002/jgc4.1506. Epub 2021 Sep 20.
Biculturals are individuals who have had significant exposure to more than one culture and who possess more than one cultural frame of reference. In the United States, this term has been used to describe both immigrants and members of racial or ethnic minority groups who live within the majority white culture. Biculturals develop a distinct repertoire of social and cognitive skills and have been shown to engage in a process of cultural frame switching in response to salient cultural cues. Through a conceptual lens offered by current research on biculturalism, this article examines transcripts of focus groups we collected for a study on the clinical training experiences of genetic counseling students who identify with a racial or ethnic minority group. We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study, collecting data via 13 videoconference focus groups with 32 recent graduates of genetic counseling training programs who identify with a racial or ethnic minority group. We focus here on two of the thematic categories identified in that study related to participants' experiences interacting with patients during supervised clinical rotations. We find three ways in which being bicultural influenced these genetic counselors' patient interactions. First, participants described interactions with both culturally concordant and culturally discordant patients that highlighted the salience of their racial, ethnic, or cultural identity in these encounters. Second, they reported sensitivity to social nuances between and within cultures, reflecting the findings of prior research about heightened cultural awareness in biculturals. Third, they described switching cultural frames in response to their patients' identities which, at times, created conflict between their professional and culturally concordant frameworks. The results of this study suggest that the influence of a student's racial, ethnic, or cultural identity on interactions with patients should be discussed within the supervisory relationship, and that being bicultural confers advantages in learning to provide culturally responsive care.
双语者是指那些接触过多种文化并拥有多种文化参照系的个体。在美国，这个术语既可以用来描述移民，也可以用来描述生活在以白人为主的主流文化中的少数族裔或种族群体的成员。双语者发展出了一套独特的社会和认知技能，并被证明会根据明显的文化线索进行文化框架转换。本文通过当前关于双语文化的研究提供的概念视角，考察了我们为一项关于少数族裔或种族群体认同的遗传咨询学生临床培训经验的研究收集的焦点小组记录。我们进行了一项建构主义扎根理论研究，通过 13 个视频焦点小组收集了最近毕业的 32 名遗传咨询培训项目的学生的资料，这些学生认同少数族裔或种族群体。我们在这里关注的是该研究中确定的与参与者在监督临床轮转期间与患者互动的经验相关的两个主题类别。我们发现双语者对这些遗传咨询师的患者互动有三种影响方式。首先，参与者描述了与文化一致和文化不一致的患者的互动，这些互动突出了他们在这些互动中的种族、民族或文化身份的重要性。其次，他们报告说对文化之间和文化内部的社会细微差别敏感，反映了双语者在文化意识方面的先前研究结果。第三，他们描述了根据患者的身份切换文化框架，这有时会在他们的专业和文化一致框架之间造成冲突。这项研究的结果表明，学生的种族、民族或文化身份对与患者互动的影响应该在监督关系中讨论，并且双语者在学习提供文化响应的护理方面具有优势。
