Use of English language in hospitals

[harm_less]

The amount of misinterpretation of the instructions implemented in Waikato Hospital is a sad indictment on the comprehension levels of many people combined with poorly worded media coverage of the issue.

My sister is a senior (~50 years experience) nurse who works in a large public hospital in Auckland. She has on numerous occasions over the past few years raised the fears and frustrations she is experiencing during her working day of immigrant nurses who struggle with English medical terminology and persist in talking between themselves in their native tongues in clinical and bedside situations. The hospital department where she works has instructed nurses to speak in English during their work, with non-English conversations tolerated in social surroundings such as in the canteen.

The language used by health professionals is often highly technical and specialised in order for rapid and precise transferral of patient's afflictions and treatment regimes. There is no place for miscommunications and misinterpretation of vital signs, nature of injuries or disease symptoms and/or pharmaceutical regimes is not an option as this can easily result in life threatening situations.

Comments being bandied around accusing Waikato Hospital of racism and failure of patient care levels are totally out of line. Where communications with patients are compromised due to lack of English skills interpreters are employed to allow full evaluation of their health issues and this is ongoing and not due to change but the large numbers of immigrant nurses now present in our health system is making for difficulties for senior staff and even NZ trained junior nurses as communications are tested by the prevalence of E2L staff members in their workplace.

[Olive]

I have always assumed that immigrant nurses have to pass an English language test before they are employed.  Is that not the case?

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I too was a little taken aback by the media reaction to this bit of hospital management. The reality that procedures and treatment could be at risk because of a misinterpretation or unclear explanation through different language use seems to have escaped the journos, who put common sense aside for the opportunity to scream 'racism' where it simply didn't exist.

English is a ridiculous language, it is easy enough to have instructions screwed up using that language alone, let alone translating it into another in the process. Especially with patients who may be ill informed or stressed. Where a patient does not speak English properly qualified interpreters are used, and medical interpreting requires specialist training because of the tecnicalities involved.

Another media beat up I think.

[harm_less]

I have always assumed that immigrant nurses have to pass an English language test before they are employed.  Is that not the case?

My sister has complained of additional workload created by her having to train immigrant nurses over the past couple of years. She is well used to 'retraining' the young nurses fresh out of polytech but the idiosyncrasies added by the likes of Asian immigrants whose default answer is yes, because it is less likely to result in negative connotations, or those who struggle with identifying gender because their native tongue doesn't differentiate in this.

"Is Mr Smith ready for surgery?"
"Yes she is."
"Do we need a chaperone for him/her?"
"Pardon?"
All made the more complex by recent moves by those that want to avoid being gender classified by using non-gender pronouns.

"Have you cannulated Mrs Jones?"
"Yes"
"Mrs Smith hasn't got an IV line in yet"
"Pardon?"

What could possibly go wrong?

[Lilith7]

You would think that a reasonable grasp of English/ & or interpreters available at all times would be needed for anyone wanting to work in medicine here; the awful possibility of not having that should be blindingly obvious.

[harm_less]

You would think that a reasonable grasp of English/ & or interpreters available at all times would be needed for anyone wanting to work in medicine here; the awful possibility of not having that should be blindingly obvious.

The use of interpreters is already common in patient to health professional environments. The issue being dealt with in this instance is inter-staff communications, as I have tried to illustrate.

The biggest problem in this discussion is that the all too active keyboard warriors are conflating patient interactions with the professionals' communications among the medical staff which are concise and precise by necessity in an environment that is often under extreme time constrains with a necessity for accuracy and full transmission of patient details than can at times change quickly. As you can imagine, the need for interpreters for communications between health workers is not a workable scenario, hence the need to restrict such communications to a common language.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Palmerston North apparently has a similar 'discussion' going on, which makes things interesting. I don't think anyone managerial is really trying to shut down interpersonal chat, although apparently the PN issue rose from some patient being annoyed an Indian nurse was speaking to a patient in a language the first one couldn't understand... (nosy much?). But the professional stuff - that is a very different discussion.

Btw, Our local hospitals has signs everywhere saying interpreters are available if required. Might be just a city thing?

[Lilith7]

You would think that a reasonable grasp of English/ & or interpreters available at all times would be needed for anyone wanting to work in medicine here; the awful possibility of not having that should be blindingly obvious.

The use of interpreters is already common in patient to health professional environments. The issue being dealt with in this instance is inter-staff communications, as I have tried to illustrate.

The biggest problem in this discussion is that the all too active keyboard warriors are conflating patient interactions with the professionals' communications among the medical staff which are concise and precise by necessity in an environment that is often under extreme time constrains with a necessity for accuracy and full transmission of patient details than can at times change quickly. As you can imagine, the need for interpreters for communications between health workers is not a workable scenario, hence the need to restrict such communications to a common language.

If they can manage to have interpreters for staff/patient communication then surely it can't be much more difficult to provide adequate means of communication between medical staff who speak different languages, whatever that might be. And really if they balk at possible cost, then they might want to consider the cost of possible consequences, & not neccessarily just  the  financial cost.

[harm_less]

The use of interpreters is already common in patient to health professional environments. The issue being dealt with in this instance is inter-staff communications, as I have tried to illustrate.

The biggest problem in this discussion is that the all too active keyboard warriors are conflating patient interactions with the professionals' communications among the medical staff which are concise and precise by necessity in an environment that is often under extreme time constrains with a necessity for accuracy and full transmission of patient details than can at times change quickly. As you can imagine, the need for interpreters for communications between health workers is not a workable scenario, hence the need to restrict such communications to a common language.

If they can manage to have interpreters for staff/patient communication then surely it can't be much more difficult to provide adequate means of communication between medical staff who speak different languages, whatever that might be. And really if they balk at possible cost, then they might want to consider the cost of possible consequences, & not neccessarily just  the  financial cost.

What a ridiculous concept. Pair an interpreter to every staff member who lacks basic communication skills in English? Who do you suggest should pay for all those extra health system related employees?

An interpreter can be arranged in advance for non-English patient consultations but this presents added expense and delays to a health system that is coming apart at the seams as it is. How about we ensure that all staff have sufficient English speaking and comprehension skills which should be part and parcel of their immigration terms and job description? Seems a lot cheaper to enforce existing protocols than to throw more money at the health sector payroll, especially as the government is busy cutting the guts out of that sector currently.

[Lilith7]

If they can manage to have interpreters for staff/patient communication then surely it can't be much more difficult to provide adequate means of communication between medical staff who speak different languages, whatever that might be. And really if they balk at possible cost, then they might want to consider the cost of possible consequences, & not neccessarily just  the  financial cost.

What a ridiculous concept. Pair an interpreter to every staff member who lacks basic communication skills in English? Who do you suggest should pay for all those extra health system related employees?

An interpreter can be arranged in advance for non-English patient consultations but this presents added expense and delays to a health system that is coming apart at the seams as it is. How about we ensure that all staff have sufficient English speaking and comprehension skills which should be part and parcel of their immigration terms and job description? Seems a lot cheaper to enforce existing protocols than to throw more money at the health sector payroll, especially as the government is busy cutting the guts out of that sector currently.

I don't think its ridiculous to have sufficient staff capable of translating when someone's life may be at stake. It needn't be a person who is present in the hospital, there could instead be a roster of people with the needed skills who are on call & able to translate via phone or PC; this is used  for translation purposes by Oz customs & appears to be working reasonably well.

Therefore it seems reasonable that it could work here in a slightly different area.

But yes, the reasonable & sensible solution is clearly to employ staff who actually can speak English. And yet, they do seem to not be doing that for whatever reason.

[harm_less]

.....

But yes, the reasonable & sensible solution is clearly to employ staff who actually can speak English. And yet, they do seem to not be doing that for whatever reason.

Nurses employed in NZ have to pass an English language test. The problem is that they are tending to revert to their native tongue in work settings hence the measures being taken by a number of hospitals in that regard for patient safety reasons.

[C_T_Russell]

The amount of misinterpretation of the instructions implemented in Waikato Hospital is a sad indictment on the comprehension levels of many people combined with poorly worded media coverage of the issue.

My sister is a senior (~50 years experience) nurse who works in a large public hospital in Auckland. She has on numerous occasions over the past few years raised the fears and frustrations she is experiencing during her working day of immigrant nurses who struggle with English medical terminology and persist in talking between themselves in their native tongues in clinical and bedside situations. The hospital department where she works has instructed nurses to speak in English during their work, with non-English conversations tolerated in social surroundings such as in the canteen.

The language used by health professionals is often highly technical and specialised in order for rapid and precise transferral of patient's afflictions and treatment regimes. There is no place for miscommunications and misinterpretation of vital signs, nature of injuries or disease symptoms and/or pharmaceutical regimes is not an option as this can easily result in life threatening situations.

Comments being bandied around accusing Waikato Hospital of racism and failure of patient care levels are totally out of line. Where communications with patients are compromised due to lack of English skills interpreters are employed to allow full evaluation of their health issues and this is ongoing and not due to change but the large numbers of immigrant nurses now present in our health system is making for difficulties for senior staff and even NZ trained junior nurses as communications are tested by the prevalence of E2L staff members in their workplace.

Completely agree!
It's a medical profession where human lives are at stake.
Unfortunately our woke media would like us to believe it's racism.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

'Woke'?

Nah, they just want to stir up trouble to boost advertising revenue. Click bait, not woke at all.