EPA Foreign care workers' intercultural adaptation and communication in intercultural care settings

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Phenomenological interrogation revealed that communication problems experienced by foreign care workers (Filipino nurses) who came to Japan under the Economic Partnership Agreement deeply involve the issues of identity as they adapt to Japanese culture. When the communication experience in Japanese makes the nurses conscious about the two conflicting self-images - who they used to be and believe is their true self (a capable nurse) and who they perceive they are now (a "useless" nurse-to-be), they see the communication itself as problematic. Moreover, they see it as problematic when the way Japanese counterparts (patients and coworkers) communicate does not help them regain and reconstruct a positive self-image as a nurse in their everyday interactions.