Communicating with non-English speaking patients PDF

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Running head: CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE CARE

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Communicating with non-English speaking patients Student’s Name Course title Instructor’s name Date

In essence, sensitivity to cultural values, beliefs, and needs, including communication, is fundamental for affective nursing interventions. Communication is the most important factor in

CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE CARE

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providing a culturally appropriate care. I have provided healthcare to Non-native Englishspeaking patients and have experiences serious problems with communication. Frist, when communicating with Non-native English-speaking patients there can be an uneasy silence and a delay in response, which may be misinterpreted by the patient. This results in a delay in providing care since I need to interrupt my assessment to seek for an interpreter who may not always accessible. Also, using the patient's relatives to act as mediators is a problem since the patient may withhold some information because they think it could impact their relationship with the family. Secondly, obtaining informed consent in a timely manner is another problem. Informed consent is a central principle of the health care system. While language barriers makes getting informed consent very complicated, it is still yet an ethical and legal prerequisite and is progressively recognized as a vital element of patient safety and quality care. However, there are two communication approaches to providing culturally appropriate care. First, in order to ensure message is passed across, a nurse should utilize demonstrations, synthetic body models, and pictures with actual equipment to communicate. Secondly, a nurse should use audiotapes made in the patient’s language(s) to present routine data, for example, preoperative procedure, room and unit orientation, or admission procedures. In conclusion, challenges such as delay in response and obtaining informed consent are very serious, however, they can be solved. To do this a nurse should use other communication approaches for instance, using audio tapes made in the patient language and also pictures and synthetic body models and demonstrations. It is vital that the patient understands what a nurse is communicating....