Ambiguous Expectations and Reduced Confidence: Experience of Somali Refugees Encountering Swedish Health Care

The purpose of this study was to explore Somali refugees' experience of their encounters with Swedish health care. Individual interviews with 20 Somalis were transcribed verbatim and interpreted according to a hermeneutic approach. The findings were expressed in three themes. The first theme, 'expectations when approaching health care', conveys an ambivalence regarding confidence and expectations of treatment and care. The second theme, 'rejection in the clinical encounter', dealt with negative experience when encountering medical staff, physicians in particular, who often responded to complaints by saying 'it's really nothing'. To the informants, this fitted into a general narrative of distrust in health care. The third theme, 'going abroad for help', described how, as a result of reduced confidence in Swedish health care, many Somalis seek medical advice and treatment in other countries. The study adds knowledge to the way Somali refugees experience Swedish health care, set in the context of medical encounters with refugees in general. Their voices need attention so as to achieve care practices based on respect and equality.