"Ensure that you are well aware of the risks you are taking…": actions and activities medical tourists' informal caregivers can undertake to protect their health and safety

BMC Public Health
Valorie A CrooksLeigh Turner

Abstract

When seeking care at international hospitals and clinics, medical tourists are often accompanied by family members, friends, or other caregivers. Such caregiver-companions assume a variety of roles and responsibilities and typically offer physical assistance, provide emotional support, and aid in decision-making and record keeping as medical tourists navigate unfamiliar environments. While traveling abroad, medical tourists' caregiver-companions can find themselves confronted with challenging communication barriers, financial pressures, emotional strain, and unsafe environments. To better understand what actions and activities medical tourists' informal caregivers can undertake to protect their health and safety, 20 interviews were conducted with Canadians who had experienced accompanying a medical tourist to an international health care facility for surgery. Interview transcripts were subsequently used to identify inductive and deductive themes central to the advice research participants offered to prospective caregiver-companions. Advice offered to future caregiver-companions spanned the following actions and activities to protect health and safety: become an informed health care consumer; assess and avoid exposure to identif...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 15, 2019·Medical Anthropology·Matthew DalstromLynette Castronovo

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
medical procedure

Software Mentioned

Skype
NVivo

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