Communication Barriers In Communication

With the increasing immigrant population a third barrier affecting access to health care is a cultural barrier. Culture barriers can include values and beliefs, language and race and ethnicity. Health beliefs and behavior can become a barrier when patients decide not to seek medical treatment and instead turn to home remedies and healers when treating illnesses. Approximately 10% of Americans speak a language other than English and can be classified ad being limited in their proficiency. For these patients language becomes a barrier and they are less likely to receive optimal medical treatment (Flores, 2006). Horton and Johnson (2010) stress the importance of communication in reducing disparities and increasing the trust of patients in the health care system. As reported by the American College of Physicians, evidence reveals that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to receive inferior care when compared with non-minorities. This occurs even when minorities have access to insurance and adequate income (Racial and ethnic disparities in health care, 2010).

Non-English speaking citizens and immigrants are receiving improper medical care because of the miscommunication. The people who cannot speak English well are misunderstood, when they go to free clinics or hospital emergency rooms and attempt to explain their symptoms and illness or cannot understand the doctors or medical profession that are trying to help them. ” Interpreters are omitting questions about drug allergies. Patients are not telling nurses the correct symptoms. A mother misunderstood by putting oral antibiotic into the ears of the child instead of the mouth. The Puerto Rican word for mumps is not the same in Central America, so a child was mistreated. A doctor mistakenly told a parent to put a steroid crème on entire child instead of just the face” (Yolanda Prtida, 2005). Language barriers in the medical field are dangerous and some times even fatal. There is definitely a need for more translators in hospitals and doctors office. Clear communication is essential for safe quality healthcare. Poor communication can lead to disastrous outcomes, especially for patients with limited or no English ability.

Can you imagine the how the healthcare industry would be without language, what seems to be impossible to imagine is the everyday reality of some patients because of their native language. Language is a major contribution to the health disparities that some populations face, because it makes it difficult for some patients to communicate their problems as well as understand the care they provided. Language contributes to the health disparities that some populations face because it creates a barrier between the patient and the care provider, making it difficult for a patient to receive proper care. Language barriers create a communication gap between a patient and a provider, forcing the patient to feel misunderstood and unable to trust his/her provider to properly care for them. I come from a family that speaks more than one language, so I have seen the impact language barriers can have on someone who doesn’t speak fluent English.

(1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Karliner, L. S., Jacobs, E. A., Chen, A. H., & Mutha, S. (2007). Do professional interpreters improve clinical care for patients with limited english proficiency?

Unfortunately, the world we live is a far cry from perfect. We have all types of barriers and roadblocks that we must face and attempt to overcome on a daily basis. When dealing with healthcare, these barriers and roadblocks can be much scarier – and in some cases even deadly. These barriers are not limited to only language, but also to differences in cultures as well.

Effective communication with patients is critical to the safety and quality care. From the last two decades ,number of researches has been conducted on the impact of language barrier on health and healthcare. It is observed that language barriers are the main cause of medical errors, complication and adverse event. But due to data limitations ,limited researches on impacts of language barrier has been conducted in Canadian setting. However, the researches conducted on other countries on the impact of language barrier on quality of care is applicable in the Canadian context. Some researches shows that there are several barrier which affect quality of care and patient safety. Now, researches has begun to know the complexity of language, culture, race, health literacy that may affect patient care. Current approaches are moved towards the knowledge of risk of language barrier rather than implementation of effective, evidence informed strategies.

Jacobs, E. A., Shepard, D. S., Suaya, J. A., Stone, E. (2004). Overcoming language barriers in health care: costs and benefits of interpreter services. American Journal of Public Health, 94 (5), 866-869.

Healthcare Disparities within the United States healthcare system has been and still is an issue that impacts the medical treatment of individuals because of their race and ethnic backgrounds. Minorities groups, suffer because of this and are at higher risks for mortality because of unequal treatment in healthcare. Within these disparity, those who find themselves unable to maximize the English language, are among the population who receive less desirable treatment in the U.S. healthcare system. Regardless of race, ethnicity, or even socioeconomic background all Americans deserve to receive the quality medical treatment.

Culturally competent care is more important now than it has been ever before. BY 2020, 35% of the American population will consist of ethnic minorities as compared to today's 28% (Goldsmith, n.d.). This means that in order to best cater to these different patients, doctors and nurses have to speak the language of the different ethnicities, understanding their perspectives of medicine and treatment and catering to these in rode rot provide them with the best intervention.

Lack of interpreter services as well as lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate health education materials has been associated with patient dissatisfaction, poor comprehension, low treatment compliance, and lower quality health care (Advocates for Youth, 2008). For example, when predominantly Spanish-speaking patients were discharged from an emergency room, they were less likely than predominantly English-speaking patients to understand their diagnosis, medications, treatment plans, and follow-up care instructions. Consequently, predominantly Spanish-speaking patients were also less likely to indicate satisfaction with their health care and were often reluctant to return for follow-ups (Betancourt

When discussing language barriers and the relation to medical professionals there are a few technical items that need to be discussed. For the purposes of this paper, language barriers are defined as any hindrance to communication between two people who are unable to speak a common language. As the United States is a country founded on immigrants and people of various backgrounds it is understood that there are a variety

With the United States becoming a more diverse nation, many non-native speakers find themselves lost in the crowd when it comes to healthcare. Unfortunately in many cases, people who do not speak english experience unacceptable healthcare due to the large language barrier. Many medical institutions are not equipped with the proper number of trained translators to meet the demands all those in need, this then results in an increasingly long wait time that can mean the difference between life or death. This growing problem is very important to me because as a future physician, I want to ensure exceptional quality healthcare to every patient. It pains me to think that a person has to suffer longer than another just because of the language

For this assignment, I will provide an accurate definition for each of the six language barriers that we find in this chapter.

Communication is a way of life for sociable organisms on earth. There are many forms of communication and several are used without saying a word or making a sound. With the types of communication in the world, communicating effectively may seem an unlikely idea. Effective communication between two individuals or more is dependable on the way the message from the sender has encoded the information. Effective communication insists that information sent should be received and retransmitted back to the sender without any loss in translation. To understand communication, it must first be broken down so that each

Is anyone wrong in this situation? By what other means could Randell have requested the information from Tom Ballard? What do you think of Tom Ballard’s reaction? Why?