‘Contradictions in having care providers with a South Sami background who speak South Sami’: older South Sami People in Sweden's expectations of home nursing care

Abstract

The Sami are an indigenous population with multiple languages and dialects living in northern areas of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula. The South Sami population lives in central regions of Sweden and Norway, and consist of about 2000 people. In this study, 56 older South Sami people from Sweden participated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted over the telephone and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The main findings show that older South Sami people's expectations of having care providers with a South Sami background speaking South Sami in home nursing care contain contradictions in and between participants. Participants had different preferences regarding having care providers with a South Sami background speaking South Sami in the future. When providing care to older South Sami people, individual adjustments are of importance, and our study showed that participants had different expectations despite having similar backgrounds.