Disciplines
Maternal, Child Health and Neonatal Nursing
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Abstract
Communication is one of the most basic and fundamental concepts in healthcare. Whether between nurse, doctor, patient, or environmental services, effective communication is vital to ensuring patient safety, achieving positive patient outcomes, promoting healthcare, and ensuring that patients make informed decisions. Data was gathered from non-English speaking patient surveys from a Labor and Delivery unit at a metro Atlanta hospital, to determine that not enough translation services were readily available for non-English speaking patients, and as a result, patient outcomes and satisfaction were negatively impacted. According to The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research, systemic reviews from multiple peer-reviewed sources, and an article from the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, non-English speaking patients receive a lower quality of care due to a lack of access and standardization of translation services. To improve patient outcomes and satisfaction scores to at least 75%, the unit managers on the floor allocated funds for every labor and delivery room to have a tablet with translation services. They also ensured that staff were properly trained on using the translation services by implementing a mandatory in-service. To determine the frequency of translation service usage before implementing these strategies, an anonymous survey was given to each team member with questions pertaining to usage frequency. To evaluate the effectiveness of this proposal, non-English speaking patient satisfaction surveys and staff translation usage surveys were reviewed at 2 and 6 months. It was determined that staff usage of translation services increased from 60% to 93% to 95%, while non-English speaking patient satisfaction of communication increased from 47% to 75% to 86%. After review of the data, it was concluded that by increasing the availability of translation services and proper staff training, patient outcomes increased in the non-English speaking population.
Key Words: translation services, communication, labor and delivery
Academic department under which the project should be listed
WellStar College of Health and Human Services
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Christie Emerson and Jan Turner
Increasing Translation Services In Labor and Delivery
Abstract
Communication is one of the most basic and fundamental concepts in healthcare. Whether between nurse, doctor, patient, or environmental services, effective communication is vital to ensuring patient safety, achieving positive patient outcomes, promoting healthcare, and ensuring that patients make informed decisions. Data was gathered from non-English speaking patient surveys from a Labor and Delivery unit at a metro Atlanta hospital, to determine that not enough translation services were readily available for non-English speaking patients, and as a result, patient outcomes and satisfaction were negatively impacted. According to The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research, systemic reviews from multiple peer-reviewed sources, and an article from the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, non-English speaking patients receive a lower quality of care due to a lack of access and standardization of translation services. To improve patient outcomes and satisfaction scores to at least 75%, the unit managers on the floor allocated funds for every labor and delivery room to have a tablet with translation services. They also ensured that staff were properly trained on using the translation services by implementing a mandatory in-service. To determine the frequency of translation service usage before implementing these strategies, an anonymous survey was given to each team member with questions pertaining to usage frequency. To evaluate the effectiveness of this proposal, non-English speaking patient satisfaction surveys and staff translation usage surveys were reviewed at 2 and 6 months. It was determined that staff usage of translation services increased from 60% to 93% to 95%, while non-English speaking patient satisfaction of communication increased from 47% to 75% to 86%. After review of the data, it was concluded that by increasing the availability of translation services and proper staff training, patient outcomes increased in the non-English speaking population.
Key Words: translation services, communication, labor and delivery