A Study On The Cultural Adaptation Of Guangdong Medical Team In Africa

Since 1960 s,China has started to send medical team to Africa.Among more than20 provinces,Guangdong has sent over 700 medical team members to Equatorial Guinea,Ghana and other countries by 2015.Nowadays,under The Belt and Road Initiative,the demand for the medical team is increasing.However,it is getting more difficult to send medical teams to Africa because of various problems,one of which is the great cultural differences between the two countries.Cultural adaptation makes huge impact to the life and work of the Chinese medical team.Only with better cultural adaptation can the medical team work and live better in Africa.The previous studies of cultural adaptation mainly concentrate on the definition of cultural adaptation,process and affecting factors.While regarding to the study of the Chinese medical team,it mainly focuses on the problems they are faced with and how to improve the work efficiency.With reference of the previous studies,this thesis takes Guanngdong medical team as a case to study the cultural adaptation of the Chinese medical team in the guidance of Colleen Ward's Two Dimensions and Black's Three Dimensions theory.First,the questionnaire is conducted to study the cultural adaptation while SPSS 21.0 is used to analyze the affecting factors.Then,qualitative analysis in the form of interview is carried out to look at the specific causes of problems.It turns out that the cultural adaptation of Guangdong medical team is on average,of which the work adaptation is the best while the psychological adaptation is the worst.Through data analysis,it is found that the language skill and the impression before going to Africa will affect the cultural adaptation.While according to interview,the causes of problems are the maladjustment to local food,accommodation,public security,homesickness,and anxiety to infectious diseases,and the poor sanitary conditions of the work environment.On the findings from the questionnaire and interview,suggestions are proposed.From the individual's perspective,the team members should uphold an active spirit,ask for help when having any problems unable to solve on their own,get involved into the local community by more participation in the community activities.From the macro perspective,the government can build a platform where they can share and exchange experiences in cultural training,support the medical equipment,improve the accommodation conditions,pay close attention to the physical and mental health of team members and guarantee their personal safety.