[Intercultural Communication with Patients in Hospital Settings - From Misunderstanding to Mutual Understanding]

Culturally diverse constellations in European hospital settings have become increasingly common, giving rise to communication challenges that affect both patient safety and the quality of care. This article examines the key dimensions of intercultural communication between physicians and patients, with particular focus on verbal and nonverbal communication, direct versus indirect communication styles, and the types of conflict that frequently arise in multicultural clinical environments. Drawing on established frameworks - including Watzlawick's communication theory and Hofstede's cultural dimensions model - the article illustrates how individualistic cultures tend toward explicit, direct communication, while collectivist cultures rely on implicit, context-dependent expression. This fundamental difference generates misunderstandings in areas such as informed consent, patient education, and the disclosure of serious diagnoses. Culture-specific expressions, such as Turkish organ metaphors, may be misread as somatic symptoms, with potentially serious clinical consequences. The article further distinguishes between communication conflicts, value and judgment conflicts, and recognition conflicts, and introduces the concept of the "ethnization" of conflict - a process in which factual disputes become emotionally charged through ethnic attribution. Practical strategies for enhancing intercultural competence are presented, including active listening, open questioning, perspective-taking, style switching, and the KPS model (Culture, Person, Situation). The article concludes that sustainable intercultural competence requires both professional knowledge acquisition and ongoing reflection on one's own cultural values and normative assumptions.