Safe acceptance in the nurses’ cultural care of medical tourists in Iran: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Medical tourism is traveling to another country to promote, restore and maintain health, recreation, and pleasure. There are different types of health tourism, including medical tourism, recovery tourism, and preventive tourism. This study aimed to explain safe acceptance in the nurses’ cultural care of medical tourists in Iran. METHODS: In this qualitative study, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses, patients, and patients’ relatives, who had been selected by purposeful sampling in 2021–2022. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed by conventional content analysis. RESULTS: The statistical analysis revealed that the main theme of this study was safe acceptance which included the five categories of trust building, safety, maintaining comfort and peace, stress control, and identifying patients’ expectations. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that safe acceptance of cultural care was essential to medical tourism. Iranian nurses were aware of the factors that affected cultural care and the safe acceptance of medical tourists. Moreover, they carried out the necessary measures to achieve safe acceptance. In this regard, solutions such as developing a comprehensive and mandatory national qualification program and evaluating its periodic performance in this field are suggested.