Interpreters in Health Care
Language barriers and the use of interpreters in the public health services. A questionnaire-based survey

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2010.05.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

This study aims to examine cross-cultural communication in health-care settings, which has implications for equal access to health services. We studied how often health-care workers experience a need for language assistance, what they do in such situations, what expectations they have of the interpreters and their evaluation of competency needs.

Methods

A quantitative cross-sectional design using a structured questionnaire was used. The participants were health-care providers in Oslo, and the survey was conducted 2004–2005.

Results

The response rate was 35.1%. The largest category of participants (51.1%) consisted of nurses, followed by the second largest category (26.6%) of 120 physicians. Our results suggested an underutilization of interpreter services in the public health-care system.

Conclusions

The use of interpreter services seems to be sporadic and dependent on the individual health-care practitioner's own initiative and knowledge. Many survey participants expressed dissatisfaction with both their own methods of working with interpreters and with the interpreter's qualifications.

Practice implications

A key area for further improvement is the process of raising awareness among health-care providers and institutions regarding the legal responsibility they have to ensure the sufficient level of communication with their patients/clients.

Section snippets

Background

During the last few decades, Norway has become increasingly multicultural; almost half a million immigrants account for 10.6% of the total population. In Oslo, 26% of the population is immigrants, the highest proportion in Norway [1]. A consequence of these demographic changes is the challenge in integrating immigrant groups into existing health-care services; the language barrier is the primary challenge for meeting the health-care needs of the immigrant population.

The negative consequences of

Methods

The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, in a cross-sectional, descriptive study. The questionnaire, originally developed and applied by linguist Mette Rudvin and colleagues in Italy [26], was translated and adapted for use as a tool for collecting data in this cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted in Norway. Its 36 questions were organized under three sections: the first focused on the need for language assistance and the use of interpreters; Section 2 focused on the

Results

Below, we present the results based on the thematic sections from the questionnaire.

Discussion

This study aimed to develop a general picture of how health-care workers deal with language barriers, common practices in using interpreter services, knowledge about and expectations of interpreters and evaluation of their own competency needs as well as the competency of the interpreters. In agreement with earlier studies [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [8], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], this study indicates that professional language assistance remains underutilized in the health-care sector.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

We want to thank all the health-care providers for their participation in the survey. We would like to thank Prof. Nora Ahlberg, former director of NAKMI, and psychiatrist Carl Ivar Dahl for their generous support and encouragement; Mette Rudvin, Karin Harsløf Hjelde, and Thor Indseth for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript; Claire Mock-Munoz de Luna and Jennifer Gerwing for helping with the language; and Cathrine Brunborg for the statistical analysis.

Contributors: EK

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