A Study Conducted By Mazor, Hampers, Chande, And Krug

Unfortunately, communication barriers that exist between American employees and immigrant end users may result in massive complications such as making the jobs for employees more difficult. For instance, as the nation is being flooded with a rise of immigrant communities, “hospitals, clinics and health-care providers are increasingly confronted with language and cultural challenges that can discourage people from seeking care and lead to calamitous errors in diagnoses and treatment regimens” as mentioned in Eliza

They must be comfortable with the idea of discussing “sensitive or personal issues” as a result of having to interpret symptoms and the reason why each patient visited a healthcare center. Also, interpreters must be able to “understand and present information of a scientific or technical nature” considering they must translate physician’s questions and answers in order for patients to be able to understand them and respond appropriately. The main focus of an interpreter communication (Santiago, 2014). Even so, responsibilities of an interpreter are continuously changing as they evolve to meet the needs of patients and become higher valued members of a healthcare team (ExploreHealthCareers.org,

The fact that I am cautious about the increase of Spanish speakers, in America, I realized becoming bilingual will soon be a necessary tool for a physician. This research project, will help me determine how effective bilingual physicians are in caring, learning, adapting, and accessing diverse

The rising number of migrant patients and foreign-trained staff means that there would be a communication error between a healthcare provider and patient when one or both are speaking a second language, something that is more likely to happen (Meuter, Gallois, Segalowitz, Ryder, & Hocking, 2015). Miscommunication in healthcare can be life threatening. With that, many patients have limited proficiency and require an interpreter. Study to evaluate the effect of current interpreter policies on patient’s satisfaction with the patient-provider relationship.

Standard one aims to provide services that are effective, comprehendible and respectful to accommodate the diverse patient population. Healthcare facilities must respect patients from other cultures and background by providing the necessary accommodations to enhance learning. This can be accomplished using language specific education materials, translator services and staff that are trained in cultural diversity. The purpose of standard one is to promote communication, learning and knowledge so that the plan of care is integrated into the patient’s cultural aspects. By focusing on this goal, patient satisfaction will increase as well as compliance rates, which leads to fewer hospital readmissions. Communication is the key component to patient centered care. When health needs are met within the diverse community, patients will have more trust in the United States health systems, promotes compliance and decreases cultural barriers promoting optimal patient health.

A trained interpreter is the most strongly recommended route to take when dealing with limited English proficiency persons. When examining the two interpreters there were clear differences in communication patterns between the two interpreters. Although the outcomes were typically similar, they noted doctors often interrupted professor interpreters more than families, and families also interrupted professor interpreters as well. Typically doctors interrupted to keep interview on track where families interrupted to control the agenda of the meeting. Also identified was family interpreters often imposed their own agenda verses being a vehicle to exchange information between doctor and patient (Leanza, Boivin, & Rosenberg,

Language barriers between physicians and patients have been associated with a decrease in patient and provider satisfaction, lack of preventative health services, increased diagnostic testing, repeat visits to the ER, extended hospital stays, increased number and severity of medical errors and problems obtaining informed consent (Gany et. al, 312). A cross-sectional review study was conducted by Schwei, and others, in recent years. It was found that the awareness of the need for better language support services in health care has increased since 2003. However, the progress has been limited due to a small percentage of health care providers who have implemented services for LEP patients

Every year, approximately 240 million emergency medical calls are made In the United states (4), a country in which it is reported to have less than 80% homes with English as their predominant language. Nearly half of the households in New York City alone are estimated to have 200 different languages distributed between them(5). This is problematic for mono-linguistic EMS telecommunicators as telephone interpreter services (TIS) have to be utilised when multi-lingual co-workers are unavailable. TIS are not without its drawbacks, information is often omitted or inadvertently manipulated through the use of interpreters,(1) furthermore, retrieving an interpreter can impose delays on the service and due to the inability to explain this to the service seeker, it can result in patient anxiousness and call

A large majority of families in the United States visit a hospital at least once a year. When children get involved, that number likely doubles or triples. Hospitals are meant to be a place where services are easy to receive in order to maintain one’s health and wellbeing. Language barriers are becoming obstacles to these services at an ever increasing rate due to the large numbers of immigrant families moving to the United States. To those who speak the dominant language in a population, the idea that others would not be able to understand them or communicate with them is never considered. However, it is a reality for a shockingly large number of people across the country. The difference in languages between a patient, their family and the professional can make the easiest of transactions difficult and complicated in a variety of ways. Due to this, hospitals need to be flexible and adaptable to work with children and families who speak a variety of languages in order for healthcare to be provided in an unobstructed way.

To reduce communication barriers, public health and health care professionals must make culturally competent communication a priority in organizations/institutions, provide on-going training on cultural competent communication through cultural competency self-assessment and education program, collect data on patients’ race and ethnicity for quality improvement. Patients must be informed on how the data will be used, incorporate professional translation services, health institutions can share the financial arrangements in translation services, involve the stakeholders of the communities in the design of programs and services for diverse populations, contract with institutions and providers with communities of minorities and help patients connect with services that speak their language(s), and increase staff diversity (Taylor & Lurie,

David, R. A., & Rhee, M. (1998). The impact of language as a barrier to effective health care in an underserved urban Hispanic community. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 65,

When working in a clinic or hospital, the health department suggests that the providers communicate with the patients, a video suggests by Boston Children's Hospitals discussing the new improvements that needs to be changed. It’s not just asking questions and a simple greeting but talking and actually getting to know them. For doctors, it is important to know what is going on in the lives of their patients (Pediatrics AAP). Currently, pediatrics are now trying to not only give care to children, but also attempt to connect with the children and parent. This idea is to demonstrate to parents that family is the center point of care. For example, Maureen Greenwood, at Cherry Health Clinics, has communicated with children's parents before. Since ADHD is a common disorder found in children and most times commonly misdiagnosed, Maureen communicates with parents over the symptoms and disorders of ADHD. She also stated that she dislikes to “jump into conclusions.” Therefore, she gives advice to parents to connect and reflect the attitudes of their child. “This is important to both the parents and the child itself as they can further understand the child's strange behavior.” she said. Above all, the child can also be suffering from another mental disorder. Though, in her clinic, she is known to spend quite a long time with her patients. She does this in the benefit for her and the patient. As a matter of fact, Dr. McMahon also agrees that communication is important. He believes, that it builds trust among the parents and the patient. This too can help benefit with future new parents or customers that once were his patients, all because communication. Regardless of the career, communication will always be important. It is an important attribute in the medical field no matter what date: 20th, 21st, or 22nd century, pediatricians using their

In the 22 years of working in the healthcare field, I have always felt uncomfortable with not knowing the Spanish language. Often, I feel discouraged having limited knowledge of the tongue and sense insecurity at war with my confidence level while interacting with the patient during care. There are times when I frequently ponder “does the patient along with family understand the plan of care.”

Earning a patient’s trust is vital to their health outcomes and this will determine if the get fair care or great care. I intend provide an atmosphere that is devoid of judgement and prejudice for my patients. Another important point I learned from this encounter was that I should not assume that because someone is Spanish, they would have the same cultural practices as all Hispanics. This is not true and from this interview, I found out that it is not true. Unlike the woman I interviewed, I believe that though different members of the family have a role to play, sometimes anyone can play the other person’s role. In families where the father is not competent, the mother or one of the children can step and play a father figure to the family. This is necessary to not bring about disorder in the home. Having an incompetent father should not mean that the children will not be provided for. Regardless of roles in the family, I believe that everyone in the family should have a vested interest in the success of their family

The nurse’s learning style should be examined but not imposed on the patient. The preferred learning style of the patient must be used for effective learning. There are immigrants who have difficulties in communicating in English. In this case nurses should be advocates for their patients and make use of the trained medical interpreters so that medical inaccuracies can be prevented.