Proceedings of the 49th International Academic Conference, Dubrovnik

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE OF HEALTHCARE STAFF: A VITAL VALUE OF SERVICE OPERATORS

SIRIJIN WONGJARUPUN, KORAKOT WICHITPONG, PREEYANUCH APIBUNYOPAS, KANYA NAPAPONGSA

Abstract:

The diversity of peoples and cultures in Thailand has increased immensely. This challenges healthcare professionals, especially nurses, to recognize the beliefs and actions of patients from different national origins, ages, religious affiliations, languages, genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic and occupational statuses, and geographical locations, among others. Not only do nurses deliver healthcare service closely to patients, but they also have to possess knowledge, attitudes, and skills that make diverse patients feel comfortable and at ease with them. Moreover, nurses have to maintain good communication with their patients for better healthcare service quality, ultimately, satisfying patients. For this reason, the cultural intelligence (CQ) is a significant capability of nurses. CQ determines how nurses are able to interact in service healthcare encounter with patients from various backgrounds. The objective of this study is to investigate nurses’ CQ. The target respondents are nurses in both private and public hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand, because they have much more opportunities to interact with multifarious patients. Nurses will be measured CQ according to Ang et al.’s model (2007) including four dimensions, namely, metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral. Confirmatory factor analysis will be utilized for data analysis. The expected result is that nurses possess all four CQ dimensions with different weights. The implication of this study is to gain a better understanding of CQ of nurses in Thai context for healthcare improvement which leads to enhance patients’ satisfaction.

Keywords: Cultural Intelligence, Service Operators

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2019.049.044

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