Perceptions of the need for minority languages by nurses in Southern Taiwan

Q4 Medicine

Communication and Medicine Pub Date : 2019-07-03 DOI:10.1558/CAM.33283

Mei-hui Tsai, Huan-Fang Lee, Shuen-Lin Jeng, Sheng Che Lin, Li-Wei Hsieh, Jen Pin Chuang, E. Jacobs

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Abstract

Background: While language barriers between healthcare providers and minority-language-speaking patients often lead to miscommunication and jeopardize patient safety, language audits of the former have received little attention.Goal: Based on the context in Southern Taiwan, where the elderly population mainly speaks the local dialect Taiwanese, this study examines nurses' perceptions of their proficiency in and need for medical Taiwanese (‘MED-TW'), and attitudes toward it. Method: A questionnaire survey was conducted among 859 nurses from three levels of healthcare units: primary care stations (H1), a regional hospital (H2) and a medical center (H3). Results: Nurses from the rural-based H1 unit displayed significantly stronger needs for Taiwanese (TW) than those from urban-based H2 and H3. Specifically, H1 nurses reported encounters with the largest proportion of TW-speaking clients (p<0.001) and the highest frequency of using TW with clients (p<0.001). However, H1 nurses' self-evaluation of their TW proficiency revealed a lower score than those of the H2 and H3 nurses, especially with regard to medical TW proficiency (p<0.05). Finally, while nurses with a high command of TW felt it helped their work, those with a low level did not feel this impacted their performance. Conclusion: Nurses working in locations where the use of the minority language is prevalent would benefit more from learning this language.

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台湾南部护士对少数民族语言需求的认知

背景:虽然医疗保健提供者和少数民族语言患者之间的语言障碍经常导致沟通不周并危及患者安全，但对前者的语言审计很少受到关注。目的:本研究以台湾南部以方言为主的老年人口为背景，探讨护理人员对医疗台语的熟练程度、需求及态度。方法:对基层医疗站(H1)、区域医院(H2)和医疗中心(H3)三级卫生保健单位的859名护士进行问卷调查。结果:来自农村H1单位的护士对台湾(TW)的需求明显强于来自城市H2和H3单位的护士。具体来说，H1护士报告遇到的说TW的客户比例最大(p<0.001)，使用TW的客户频率最高(p<0.001)。然而，H1组护士在自我评价两种工作方式的熟练程度上得分低于H2组和H3组，尤其是在医疗两种工作方式的熟练程度上(p<0.05)。最后，虽然熟练掌握TW的护士认为这有助于他们的工作，但那些熟练掌握TW的护士并不认为这会影响他们的工作表现。结论:在少数民族语言使用普遍的地区工作的护士会从学习这门语言中受益更多。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Communication and Medicine Medicine-Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

CiteScore

0.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Communication & Medicine continues to abide by the following distinctive aims: • To consolidate different traditions of discourse and communication research in its commitment to an understanding of psychosocial, cultural and ethical aspects of healthcare in contemporary societies. • To cover the different specialities within medicine and allied healthcare studies. • To underscore the significance of specific areas and themes by bringing out special issues from time to time. • To be fully committed to publishing evidence-based, data-driven original studies with practical application and relevance as key guiding principles.