La médiation interculturelle en milieu hospitalier en Belgique : une recherche de reconnaissance

Our paper focuses on the relationship between the diversity of staff and the diversity of users in the hospital environment. We will show the strength of the diversity of staff for customers and beneficiaries, from the experience of a public hospital in Belgium, confronted with the cultural diversity of its audience.The diversity of patients, in languages but also in culture, poses significant problems in providing diagnoses and accompanying patients throughout the illness and the care process. Proposing intercultural mediators is part of the quest for greater efficiency (better satisfying customers and users) and efficiency (making better use of available resources), but also in the interests of equality and social inclusion. This article aims to describe the different components of this job, to better understand the skills required of staff, to show the entire process of internal recognition and to identify the difficulties and debates around the function. It was built in a process of research-action built with professionals involved in mediation, with whom we realized a joint writing work from their field experiences and a process of support of the service of mediated for more than 15 years.