Communicating with parents who have difficulty understanding and speaking Swedish: An interview study with health care professionals

Patriksson, Katarina; Berg, Marie; Nilsson, Stefan; Wigert, Helena

doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2017.07.001

Cited by 15 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…Not surprisingly both parties might feel inadequate; the mothers because they were unable to express their feelings and needs, the nurses because they were unable to give the same quality of care as they did to mothers with whom they could fully communicate. Patriksson, Berg, Nilsson, and Wigert (2017) point out that communication without a common language creates an asymmetric power relationship. The observation that the nurses primarily approached the mother, rarely the other way around, may indicate that the mothers did not feel sufficiently comfortable or confident to initiate contact.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When a common language is missing: Nurse–mother communication in the NICU. A qualitative study

Kynoe

Fugelseth

Hanssen

2020

Journal of Clinical Nursing

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Aims and objectives To explore how communication in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) between immigrant mothers and nurses take place without having a common language, and how these mothers experience their NICU stay. Background Admission of infants to NICU affects both parents and infants. Immigrant mothers constitute a vulnerable hospital population in need of culturally, linguistically and individually tailored information. Design and methods The study had a qualitative design reported according to the COREQ criteria. Eight mothers who spoke neither Scandinavian nor English went through individual semi‐structured interviews. Six mother–nurse interactions were observed, and eight nurses' experiences were explored through focus‐group interviews. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis was thematic and hermeneutic in character. Results Interpreters were present during the consultations with the physicians, but rarely during the daily nurse‐mother interactions. Nurses focused on daily routines, infant care guidance and mother–infant attachment. The mothers learned through demonstrations and hands‐on guidance. Language barriers made it difficult to assess the mothers' understanding, but the mothers expressed that they felt adequately included in the care of their infant and well informed and guided. Even so, both mothers and nurses expressed desire to use interpreters more regularly. The pictorial communication boards available lacked important vocabulary needed in neonatal nursing contexts and their use furthermore interrupted the mother–nurse conversation. Conclusion Body language, simple words, guesswork, trial and error characterised the nurse–mother interaction. The nurses adopted various communication strategies to help the mothers understand and give them a voice. Competent interpreters were used during meetings with physicians, but not during daily bedside guidance and information giving by nurses. Relevance to clinical practice Knowledge of immigrant mothers' and nurses' communication strategies and how both parties think, feel and act to overcome communication problem is necessary to improve clinical practice and reduce communication barriers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When a common language is missing: Nurse–mother communication in the NICU. A qualitative study

Kynoe

Fugelseth

Hanssen

2020

Journal of Clinical Nursing

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“…The data collector (first author, KP) was a specialist in paediatric nursing with 30 years of experience working in a neonatal unit. Her pre-understanding was influenced both by this experience and by the results of previous studies (Patriksson et al, 2017;. The data collector contacted each unit to verify if there were parents with language barriers.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health care professionals in a Swedish study experienced cultural differences as challenging, and this made it hard for them to comprehend the wishes of families; for instance, that the spokesperson for the family was someone who visited the ward solely in order to make decisions regarding the care and treatment of the child (Patriksson, Nilsson, Berg, & Wigert, 2017). In another study, health care professionals realized that families from a different background were all unique, that people differed in their adherence to cultural norms, and that care therefore needed to be tailored to the individual (Hendson, Reis, & Nicholas, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patients' degree of satisfaction depends on how health care professionals respond to their communication needs (Squires, 2017). When health care professionals were unable to communicate with parents, they experienced frustration that the message they wanted to convey was not understood by the parents (Hendson et al, 2015;Patriksson et al, 2017). The use of the services of interpreters or bilingual health care professionals might contribute to greater patient satisfaction (Squires, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conditions for communication between health care professionals and parents on a neonatal ward in the presence of language barriers

Patriksson

Nilsson

Wigert

2019

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

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Purpose: Family-centred neonatal care views parents and child as a unit, and aims to support each family on the basis of its specific needs. Good communication can increase parents' satisfaction and reduce tension, and is necessary to create a mutual trustful relation, but is influenced by language barriers. We aimed to describe communication between neonatal health care professionals and parents in the presence of language barriers. Methods: A field study using a hermeneutic lifeworld approach, participative observation, and interviews with parents and health care professionals. Results: The main theme, endeavouring to understand the meaning behind the words, comprised three themes. Wanting to speak for oneself meant that parents wanted to speak for themselves or call on a friend or multilingual health care professionals, in contrast to the health care professionals wish to use an interpreter. Being aware of cultural keys meant that some wards had access to a "cultural broker" to assist health care professionals and parents with both language translation and understanding of the Swedish health care environment. Understanding one another in the employees' arena reflected varying language skills among health care professionals. The health care professionals had the power to decide the level of access to communication, and decided both the intensity and the frequency of the conversations. Conclusions: Health care professionals preferred to use an interpreter when communicating with parents, while parents wished to be independent and speak for themselves. If an interpreter was used, parents preferred this to be a friend or health care professionals; this option was less popular among health care professionals.

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“…In neonatal care, parents are supported in learning about their baby’s behaviour and how to respond to the baby’s cues through supported involvement and participation in care-giving activities [3]. In the case of parents who are foreign-born and do not speak Swedish, the success of the communication between health care professional and non-Swedish-speaking parents depends on the health care professionals being aware of and having access to the guidelines on communication using an interpreter and, further, on health care professional tapping into their own personal resources, such as their own language skills [4]. With global migration an increasing number of people are residing in countries where another language is spoken.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health care professional’s communication through an interpreter where language barriers exist in neonatal care: a national study

Patriksson

Wigert

Berg

et al. 2019

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background A number of parents in neonatal care are foreign-born and do not speak the local language, which makes communication between healthcare professionals and parents more difficult. Interpreters can be used when language barriers exist - parent interactions, medical communication and communication about the care of the child . The aim in this study was to examine healthcare professionals’ use of interpreters and awareness of local guidelines for interpreted communication in neonatal care. Method A survey was distributed to all 2109 employees at all 38 neonatal units in Sweden, thus to all physicians, registered nurses and nurse assistants in active service. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and dichotomized so the professionals were compared in groups of two using the Mantel-Haenszel Chi Square test and Fisher’s Non Parametric Permutation test. Results The survey was answered by 41% ( n = 858) representing all neonatal units. The study showed a difference between the professional groups in awareness of guidelines, availability of interpreters, and individual resources to communicate through an interpreter. Nurse assistants significantly lesser than registered nurses ( p < .0001) were aware of guidelines concerning the use of interpreters. In emergency communications nurse assistants used authorized interpreters to a significantly lesser extent than physicians ( p < .0001) and registered nurses ( p < .0001). Physicians used authorized interpreters to a significantly higher extent than registered nurses ( p 0.006) and non-authorized interpreters to a significantly lesser extent than registered nurses ( p 0.013). In planned communications, nurse assistants used authorized interpreters to a significantly lesser extent than physicians ( p < .0001) and registered nurses ( p < .0001). Nurse assistants rated their ability to communicate with parents through an interpreter to a significantly lesser extent than physicians ( p 0.0058) and registered nurses ( p 0.0026). No other significant differences were found. Conclusion The results of the study show insufficient awareness of guidelines in all neonatal units in Sweden. Clinical implications might be to provide healthcare professionals with guidelines and training clinical skills in using interpreters and increasing the availability of interpreters by having interpreters employed by the hospital. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4428-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Communicating with parents who have difficulty understanding and speaking Swedish: An interview study with health care professionals

Cited by 15 publications

References 15 publications

When a common language is missing: Nurse–mother communication in the NICU. A qualitative study

When a common language is missing: Nurse–mother communication in the NICU. A qualitative study

Conditions for communication between health care professionals and parents on a neonatal ward in the presence of language barriers

Health care professional’s communication through an interpreter where language barriers exist in neonatal care: a national study

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