Language Barriers in Healthcare: What to Know?

Language barriers in healthcare can lead to mistreatment and miscommunication for patients who do not speak English. This can affect their access to quality care and understanding of their medical conditions. Translators are crucial in bridging this gap, but there is a shortage in the medical field. It is important for healthcare workers to be able to communicate with patients in their preferred language to ensure patient safety and satisfaction. Nursing students should prioritize providing the best care rather than just seeking financial gain. The podcast emphasizes the need for awareness and action in addressing language barriers in healthcare. Welcome to our unit, Power of Language. Our title is Language Barriers in Health Care at What to Know. My name is Melissa. My name is Emily. And my name is Cindy. Have you or somebody you know ever felt mistreated by a medical worker? In an article written in the National Library of Medicine, it stated that 36% of Hispanic people reported that someone they knew had been treated unfairly by the health care system because of their ethnicity. And this is something that is happening all around us. Even if you believe there's no health care barriers, there is. And we have a personal experience to expand on this. My grandmother would feel frustrated to go to her doctor's appointments alone because she couldn't understand the workers and they were rude. When she mentioned this to me, I felt saddened and that was when I started going to her doctor's appointments to translate and also saw the difference in the way I was treated because I knew English and she didn't. And that was when I also noticed the lack of acknowledgement towards her. Yeah, I also had a similar experience with Cindy. As a daughter of immigrant parents, especially my mother, I had to go to doctor's appointments with her to translate. And I'd see the lack of empathy coming from health care workers just because she didn't know English and I did. And they failed to acknowledge her and instead of talking to her like they should, they would talk to me about her problems. And I could see how that can affect many people and many patients. And I feel like it's our responsibility to bring acknowledgement and awareness to this topic because it's not something that it's widely talked about. Now we have an interview with Madeline who is a student at Dominican University and who has experience translating for her parents and she's going to explain how it feels. Okay, so can you introduce yourself and tell us where you and your parents are from? My name is Madeline and I'm originally from Missouri but I grew up in Chicago and my parents are from Mexico. What's your family's first language? Our first language is Spanish. And is that the primary language in your house? It is, but me and my siblings do speak English to each other. Do you go places with your parents to translate? I do, yes. And what are some of the places that you've had to translate at? Some of the places are like the post office, the DMV, ordering food, retail in stores, and the doctor's office. Honestly, anywhere, everywhere I've probably been there. And how did being the translator for your parents so young affect you? I think it made me more timid as I grew older. I saw the task of translating to be annoying because I felt like I had no business in those conversations. So like when you were really young it was just like, it was really hard? Yeah, I just felt like they looked at me different because I was so young translating such like mature conversations. Do you think it was like a burden on you? Do you think that you felt like it was a burden on you? I feel like, it's bad to say, but I feel like it was kind of a burden because I had like, I didn't, my vocabulary was kind of limited in both languages as a child so it was kind of like. Yeah, because you were so young and you were still learning everything. When you were in the doctor's office, did you see any miscommunication between the healthcare providers there and between like your parents? I feel, when it was my turn to translate, I feel like there was some kind of miscommunication in those conversations because I was so young and my vocabulary was so limited and like healthcare, there's some terms that I need specific translations for and I felt like I couldn't really convey that to my parents or a family member that I needed to translate for. Yeah, because when you're so young and you're still like trying to figure out the words for stuff, especially when you're doing it in a different language, even if you speak it at home all the time, it can still be really hard. Do you feel like it gave you anxiety and it made you really scared? Yes, definitely. I feel like, especially because of the pressure, in those moments I lost my ability to speak either language so it was kind of like all the pressure just piling on top of each other. Because you're so nervous, you forget everything. You have to remember everything to tell your parents and then you have to tell them. You have to remember it and then repeat it back to them. And so you felt really out of place? I did, yes. Was it really difficult for you to understand what was going on, especially because you were so young? I feel like I grew to understand, I feel like I understood what was happening but I felt like I wasn't supposed to be the one sending the message. I was not supposed to be the messenger, I was a child. Like having the responsibility to do that. Yeah, exactly. And finally, do you feel that healthcare workers should also speak Spanish to try and reduce the miscommunication and ensure patient safety? I definitely do think the workers should speak Spanish or any other language, honestly. Because I feel like it's important that a patient knows exactly what type of quality care they're getting and so they know what's going on, yes. Because you shouldn't rely on a child to translate. I feel like that should be put up to a professional in the healthcare space. So it makes it a lot easier? It does, yes. Thank you for your time, thank you for answering. As we can see, there's a lack of translators in the medical field and I think translators are very important to have because not everyone speaks English and yes, it is the predominant language in the United States but a lot of people immigrant from different countries and translation is one of the key components to avoid miscommunication. As Madeline mentioned, Spanish speakers take up a large population of the United States so it's important to include other demographics, not just English speakers. Yeah, I agree. I think that just because English is the dominating culture, we shouldn't ignore that there are other languages and it shouldn't be about the language spoken. It should be about providing the best care for their patients despite the language they speak. Another topic I think that we should talk about is the fact that there are lots of people who want to major in nursing but also minor in Spanish. In theory, it sounds like a good idea but they only want to make more money in their career. I think as healthcare providers, I think we should be more focused on trying to give out the best quality that we can and not trying to live a lifestyle that we want to. We should be trying to eliminate miscommunication that we have between patients and try and give people what they're there for in a medical setting. Overall, everyone's barriers in healthcare is something that needs to be acknowledged for them to receive the best treatment as possible and it's important to take this into consideration especially when the patient has a serious illness or something that may be life-threatening. As people who have first-hand experience with translating for our parents or another family member, I think we should continue to be concerned about what we can do for people who are struggling with language barriers. That's something we can all take away from this. Thank you to the source we use, National Library of Medicine, and also thank you to the instrumental of the Grey's Anatomy theme song. Thank you for listening to our podcast about language barriers in healthcare. This is Cindy. This is Melissa. And this is Emily. I hope you learned that the way healthcare workers treat their patients affect them. As young people potentially going into the workspace such as healthcare, it's important for us to know and acknowledge any barriers patients may receive so that we're able to give them the best care possible. Thank you.