Abstract
BackgroundSouth Africa is a multilingual society, and therefore, the likelihood of healthcare providers (HCPs), including students training to be HCPs, encountering language barriers with patients is high.AimTo explore and describe the experiences of homoeopathy student interns regarding language barriers in the delivery of health services and to provide guidance towards overcoming language barriers in homoeopathic practice at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).SettingThe interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in English and at a private location that was convenient for the participants in Johannesburg, Gauteng.MethodsThis qualitative study used a phenomenological approach. Ten individual interviews were conducted with registered homoeopathy student interns (HSIs) from the UJ. The central question: ‘What has your experience been regarding language barriers between you and your patients at the UJ Homoeopathy clinics?’ was asked and responses were recorded and transcribed for later analysis. The interview results were presented to a focus group for discussion to validate findings that arose from the analysis and to provide an opportunity to add any insight, comment or recommendations that were not expressed in individual interviews and verification of emergent themes.ResultsParticipants described how language barriers create challenges in understanding between patients and HSIs. Descriptions of the experiences of the intrapersonal and interpersonal effects that are associated with language barriers were provided. Participants also described the influence of language barriers on the various aspects of the health service process. Finally, participants described the mitigation of language barriers through various strategies.ConclusionParticipants reported their experiences of language barriers as challenging. Language barriers were found to adversely affect the various aspects of the health service process as well as the practitioner’s personal feelings and the patient–practitioner relationship. Language acquisition and awareness modules introduced early on in the syllabus is a proposed solution to the mitigation of language barriers.
Highlights
Patient diversity is influenced by various factors including race, sex, gender, culture, socioeconomic status and, not least of all, language
With 11 official languages spoken in South Africa, healthcare providers (HCPs) will routinely encounter a diverse patient base, if based only on language spoken
Parsons et al (2014) and Zendedel et al (2016) argued that language barriers and miscommunication have a negative effect on the health service process
Summary
Patient diversity is influenced by various factors including race, sex, gender, culture, socioeconomic status and, not least of all, language. With 11 official languages spoken in South Africa, healthcare providers (HCPs) will routinely encounter a diverse patient base, if based only on language spoken. Benjamin et al (2016) stated that a reality for South African society is that the majority of health consultations (as much as 80%) are not performed in the home language of the patient and has described the interplay of language and health as ‘a monolingual health service in a multilingual society’. Language barriers in healthcare may result in misunderstandings during case management as well as legal and ethical implications when making use of informal interpreters (Engelbrecht et al 2008). South Africa is a multilingual society, and the likelihood of healthcare providers (HCPs), including students training to be HCPs, encountering language barriers with patients is high
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