Ways of overcoming linguistic barriers in healthcare intercultural communication

Abstract

This paper focuses on communication between Italian midwives and migrant patients, in which the midwives deal with the patients’ limited proficiency in Italian language. The paper presents a study conducted in two women's health assistance centres in an Italian province, and is based on seven hours of audiotaped and transcribed interactions between midwives and migrant patients during prenatal check-ups. The analysis concerns those actions in which the midwives (1) formulate patients’ previous utterances in order to check their own understanding and then provide explanations or continue their inquiry, and (2) reformulate their own utterances in order to solve explicit or expected problems of understanding on the part of patients. The paper illustrates how formulations and reformulations are used by midwives to try to overcome language barriers in healthcare interactions and give meanings to medical terms and patients’ health problems. The analysis shows that formulations and reformulations can enhance both a patient-centred form of communication and a form of midwives’ authority, discussing how these forms establish conditions and meanings of intercultural communication. An analysis of this kind can be useful to raise awareness and promote training among healthcare providers, particularly regarding situations and conditions of effective communication with migrant patients.