During week four, my clinical instructor assigned me to a Cantonese patient and informed me on his inability to speak English. I was not however made aware of the fact that he was unable to understand English as well. As I walked in the room, it was just me and the patient. As per normal procedure, I began by introducing myself and continued with the assessment and vital signs. “How did you sleep last night?” is a question I ask during assessment, however when I asked my patient this question, he seemed to have a puzzled look on his face. As having previously dealt with patients, I understood that it was quite possible he did not want to talk to me, felt annoyed and just wanted to go back to sleep. However, after doing assessments, I concluded …show more content…
(2007) conducted a quantitative study on what issues can arise from language/communication barriers. They state that informed consent is significant in nursing as it provides ethical, legal, safe and client-centered health care (Schenker et al., 2007). However, when there is a language barrier, essentially the process of informed consent becomes more difficult (2007). In order to ensure such obstacles do not occur, consent discussion must be presented in languages the patient comprehends or simply, with an interpreter (2007). They heavily state that as the world is growing more diverse linguistically, language barriers have been the source of many complications that surrounds patient care (2007). This includes: unnecessary costs of medical services increases, patient satisfaction decreases, comprehension and adherence to prescribed medication routines are not completely followed and there is an increase in the length of hospital stays (2007). Language barriers can distort and alter the understanding of a message based on the interpreter and their ability to comprehend (2007). For instance, during my encounter with my client, I asked him if he felt pain and he responded by shaking his head no. It is possible that since he did not speak English, he may have assumed I asked something else. Lacking the skills on how to deal with language barriers, I went and charted that he did not have any pain when in reality, there was a chance that he very well could have. This would be an example of a distorted message; if he did feel pain, it could have not been recognized and treated. As a result, this places a burden on nurses when trying to provide care to culturally distinct individuals. Thus, nurses become responsible for figuring out ways to make their patients understand and ease communication between both