Healthcare Interpreting in Emergency Departments: Importance of Healthcare Interpreters in the Communicational Process of Foreign Patients and Physicians

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the role of healthcare interpreters in overcoming language barriers in Emergency Departments from the perspective of emergency physicians in Türkiye. Although there is a limited number of studies focusing on healthcare interpreting in EDs, they do not evaluate the opinions of ED physicians. Therefore, this study will be a pioneer research analyzing the importance of healthcare interpreting from the perspective of ED physicians in Türkiye. For this purpose, a questionnaire comprising 14 questions was prepared through the survey method to collect the opinions of emergency physicians about communication problems with foreign patients. The convenience sampling method was used to determine the study group consisting of 102 emergency physicians. The data was analyzed with descriptive analysis techniques by calculating the arithmetic mean and frequencies. After the data analysis process, it was found that communication problems in EDs lead to prolonged duration of taking anamnesis, delays in diagnosis, treatment, and discharge, extensive medical examinations, and unnecessary use of medical resources.

Keywords

• Healthcare interpreting
• emergency departments
• foreign patients
• anamnesis-taking
• communication problems

Acil Servislerde Sağlık Çevirmenliği: Yabancı Hasta-Hekim Arasındaki İletişim Sürecinde Sağlık Çevirmenlerinin Önemi

Abstract

Bu çalışma, acil servislerde iletişim sorunlarının çözülmesi aşamasında sağlık çevirmenlerinin rolünü Türkiye'deki acil servis hekimlerinin bakış açısıyla değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Acil serviste sağlık çevirmenliğinin önemine odaklanan sınırlı sayıda çalışma olmakla birlikte bu çalışmaların hiçbiri çevirmenlerin Acil Servisteki rolünü ve iletişim sorunlarının önemini acil hekimlerinin görüşlerine dayanarak değerlendirmemiştir. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma, sağlık çevirmenliğinin hasta-hekim karşılaşmaları üzerindeki farklı etkilerini Türkiye’deki acil hekimlerinin bakış açısıyla değerlendiren öncü bir çalışma niteliğindedir. Bahsi geçen amaç doğrultusunda, acil servis hekimlerinin yabancı hastalarla iletişim sorunları hakkındaki görüşlerini almak amacıyla 14 sorudan oluşan bir anket hazırlanmıştır. Anketin hazırlanması aşamasında tarama deseni kullanılmıştır. Çalışma grubunun belirlenmesinde kolay örnekleme yöntemi seçilmiş ve çalışmaya 102 acil servis hekimi dahil edilmiştir. Veriler betimsel analiz teknikleri ile aritmetik ortalama ve frekansları hesaplanarak analiz edilmiştir. Veri analizi sonucunda acil servislerde yaşanan iletişim sorunlarının; anamnez alma süresinin uzamasına, tanı, tedavi ve taburculuk süreçlerinde gecikmelere, gereksiz yere kapsamlı tıbbi tetkiklerin yapılmasına ve tıbbi kaynakların gereksiz kullanımına neden olduğu tespit edilmiştir.

Keywords

• Sağlık çevirmenliği
• acil servis
• yabancı uyruklu hastalar
• anamnez alma
• iletişim sorunları

Ethical Statement

The Ethics Committee Approval of this study was taken from the Ethics Committee of the University of Samsun on April 21, 2022, with Decision No. 2022-10.

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