Language barrier prevents patient satisfaction because the health care providers is unable to understand or relate to patients. The Capstone Project is designed to be completed in sections. This is p

Language Barrier 5









Language Barrier

Effective communication is an element that should be enhanced in health care. Many health care centers may develop difficulties between patients and healthcare providers due to communication barriers. Therefore, the ability of a healthcare to recognize the issues in communication and coming up with a resolution can change the working condition drastically (Karliner et al., 2012). Communication in healthcare can be hindered by the language barrier between the patient and the health service providers. Therefore, the management should ensure that there is a barrier in language is addressed to ensure patients satisfaction.

The language Barrier

The language barrier is typically the barriers to communication. The barrier is brought in by the difficulties in communication that is faced by people or groups of people speaking different languages. This kind of barrier can probably cause misunderstanding or misinterpretation of information among different people. Additionally, communication becomes difficult in situations where the parties involved do not understand the language of each other (Schenker et al., 2008). For instance, most of the people around the world do not speak in English. Therefore, communicating with them using the English language means limited communication. Basically, there will be less communication until both or one party learn the new language being used by the other party. This will require too much investment in effort, time and money.

Based on the logic model, the language barrier is a phenomenon that is caused by the failure of the patients and the healthcare providers to have a common language for communication. The language barrier will force the organization to use the devices that will help in communication between the involved parties. A comprehensive evaluation program should be put in place to endure that effective communication systems are utilized effectively.

Proposed Solutions

In order to deal with the language barrier in healthcare, the management should develop a framework of solutions that will help to eradicate the barrier. Timmins, (2002) indicates that the organization should ensure the use of multiple languages in the healthcare to ensure effective communication with the patients. There should also be the use of interpreters who are professionals in interpreting the languages so that the patients are well understood, and the right medication is administered to them. The staff should also be trained on the communication skills they will use to ensure that the effectively communicate with the patients. The use of visuals such as the pictures and the graphs will promote communication between the patients and the healthcare providers thus reducing the language barriers.

Language barriers will be resolved by ensuring that there is an effective assessment of the language barriers from time to time. The staff will also be able to improve their communication abilities using different languages. The use of professional interpreters will ensure that the information is passed on as expected from the patients to the medical practitioners and the feedback is communicated effectively.

Expected Outcome

When the language barrier is addressed effectively, there will be effective communication in the healthcare between the patients and the healthcare providers (Flores, 2006). Effective communication will improve the satisfaction of the patients thus this will increase the number of patients seeking medication from the community. There will also be an increased number of patients coming back for checkup thus increasing the profit margins of the organization. There will be complete training to the healthcare workers who will learn different languages to ensure satisfaction of the employees thus this training is permanent and long-term.

References

Flores, G. (2006). Language barriers to health care in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine355(3), 229-231.

Karliner, L. S., Auerbach, A., Nápoles, A., Schillinger, D., Nickleach, D., & Pérez-Stable, E. J. (2012). Language barriers and understanding of hospital discharge instructions. Medical care50(4), 283.

Schenker, Y., Lo, B., Ettinger, K. M., & Fernandez, A. (2008). Navigating language barriers under difficult circumstances. Annals of Internal Medicine149(4), 264-269.

Timmins, C. L. (2002). The impact of language barriers on the health care of Latinos in the United States: a review of the literature and guidelines for practice. The Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health47(2), 80-96.