Experiences of foreign students with scheduled healthcare center medical appointments

Abstract

Healthcare is an important service that is required by everyone and most developed countries Finland inclusive ensure that all people foreigners alike have unlimited access to it. Reservation of appointments is one of the most common ways through which healthcare services are sought in the developed world. Just like any other method of service acquisition, diverse groups of people experience the use of appointments in healthcare in various ways. This study looked at experiences of appointment booking services in relation to foreign students in one of the Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland. The purpose of the study was to provide information for developing medical appointments implementation in healthcare centers. This was focused on providing information for both healthcare providers and healthcare centers in order to establish foreign patients’ needs and development of appointment booking system. A qualitative research approach was applied. Data was collected from five students. Structured interview guide questionnaires were used to yield detailed response from the students. The results were analyzed by content analysis method. The findings suggested that the students had all generally accessed healthcare using appointments and had various ideas about access and use of appointments. However, there were gaps in their knowledge concerning the existence of online appointment booking services and experienced limited user ability skills given a language barrier problem. The students further expressed their wish for all health enters to adopt online appointment booking systems tailored with various language preferences also.