In my different placements I have realised how being able to speak at least one other language can be quite a bonus. I never got to appreciate this because in the past it has made it challenging for me to communicate with patients, particularly when I’m trying to explain things during assessment and treatment. One too many times, I find myself translating terms in my mind at least three times in different languages before I can finally come up with the English equivalent.
During my gerontology placement I came across an old lady who can only speak Spanish and very minimal English so the staff found it hard to communicate with her to tell her what the plans for her were. She had a daughter that visited her at most twice a week so that did not make things any easier for anyone. So when I introduced myself to her and asked if she’s ready for physio (in Spanish), her eyes lit up and she talked incessantly in Spanish. I carried out assessment and treatment for her twice a day and I also tried my best to translate for the nurses and it felt good things got a lot easier. The same thing happened during my rural placement where there was an old lady who can only speak Malay and I had to translate as well.
During my orthopedic placement, I had a Greek patient who knew how to speak English but with a very very very thick accent that it’s almost impossible to understand what she’s saying, and another patient who’s a refugee from Sudan who can only say ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ and ‘pain.’ They were put in the same room and they both weren’t very friendly. Physio sessions were a bit difficult at first because apart from myself not being able to understand them and vice versa, they didn’t seem to be interested in doing their exercises at all and therefore were not very compliant. Their families did not visit them often as well. So what I did was ask them to give me a crash course on their languages. I asked them to translate words like ‘walk,’ ‘leg,’ ‘arm,’ etc that will be really helpful for the treatment sessions and I wrote those down, after a lot of gesturing. They warmed up to me and seemed pleased that I took a lot of interest in their respective languages. It all worked out quite well in the end because I knew those sessions were effective and everyone was happy.
2 comments:
Great work Gene. My language skills are pretty limited to english and some basic french and german, so when it comes to patients who don't speak english, I find it difficult to communicate, but try to use hand gestures and facilitation - having them teach you some words is a goo idea and I'm guessing it did loads for pt rapport as well.
I found a government website which has some useful translated information sheets, about diseases/importance of exercise etc which can be useful for pt education.. www.healthtranslations.vic.gov.au
My language skills are limited to english but I have found that if you can get a couple of key words like you mentioned, treatment and rapport with the patient becomes a whole lot easier.
One of the best things I have found in the outpatient setting is if all possible ask a english speaking family memeber to be present as this can fast track the understanding for everyone.
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