Language Barrier and Threat to Quality Healthcare in Nigeria

By Maimuna Katuka Aliyu,

Nigeria as a nation is multi-lingual in nature and also multi-ethnic, with varieties of cultures and languages. It has three major languages which are: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

Language is the process of understanding different ways and modes of communication to interact in a much easier way. Language barrier is the communication between people who are unable to speak a common language. It impedes the formation of interpersonal relationships and can cause misunderstandings that lead to conflict, frustration, offense, violence, hurt feelings, and wasting time, effort, money, and human life.

The Nigerian health sector faces a lot of issues when it comes to language barriers, but with the help from people like interpreters, those who know sign language and so on, can help resolve this particular issue of language barrier.

Language barriers pose challenges in terms of achieving high levels of satisfaction among medical professionals and patients, providing high- quality healthcare and maintaining patient safety. Thus, to address these challenges, many healthcare institutions offer interpreter services to improve healthcare access, patient satisfaction, and communication.

However, these services increase the cost and duration of treatment.
Several studies have shown that patients who face language barriers have poorer health outcomes compared with patients who speak the local language.
Regardless of language barriers, healthcare providers are required to deliver high-quality healthcare that adheres to the principles of human rights and equity to all their patients.

So here are some few ways in which a healthcare professional can provide the best care to patients when there is language barrier.

Ask The Patient If There Is Someone They Can Call

Always offer to ask if the patient has a friend or family member that they would like to call. The reason why its efficient to use this as a first resort and not a language line, is because sometimes people just feel a lot more comfortable when they have somebody that they know on the phone explaining on their behalf.
We live in a very diverse country… it’s inexcusable that healthcare professionals are unable to see patients or get to the bottom of their issues simply because of a language barrier.

Book An Interpreter

Generally, it is essential for any healthcare premises to book an interpreter. This can be done in two ways. It can be a telephone interpreter, or a face-to-face interpreter. Ideally a face-to-face interpreter, however these are not always easy to come by.
A telephone interpreter doesn’t need to be pre-booked or anything like that. You just call a number, say the language that you want, and you can generally get them right there and then.

This is so helpful, and you can literally see the patient come alive when there’s someone on the phone who understands their language or what they have to say.
These appointments generally take quite a long time because it’s almost like you’re having two people at once telling you the same thing, which can be quite difficult, for both patients and understanding, but you’ll get to the bottom of whatever it is that the patient has come in for.

In addition, as much as phoning a friend (I would prefer to do that), a lot of the times these telephone interpreters know medical terminology and they are able to just describe the situation a lot better than a friend or family member because they may not understand certain words in medical terms.

So, either/or is always good, but at the same time, you just have to gauge the situation and see what is working and what isn’t working. Sometimes, there can be patients who decide to phone a friend or family member, and that person also doesn’t speak as much English as them, so it’s just a never-ending cycle and says that “Okay, would you like me to call a telephone interpreter or book another day for a face-to-face?”

Find A Colleague Who Speaks The Same Language

I will say this is probably your easiest option, although in a GP practice there’s not as many staff as in the hospital but you can always ask if there’s anybody in your practice that speaks the language that the patient speaks.
If they can interpret for you, this is always helpful because they know the patient or the patient is registered in your practice, so they’re able to also document that they were with the patient, they saw the patient as well, and this is always helpful.

Use Google Translate As A Last Resort

Lastly, this is usually the last thing i resort to if all other options fail, and you’d be surprised that a lot of the patients bring out their phones as well, is things like Google Translate or any form of translation using their phone.

I would advice that google translate should be considered carefully before use or if no option works simply because sometimes, things are just not translated well, or they’re translated directly. But a lot of times, patients will bring out their phone and they will type things in, and we will just have a dialogue in that way.

If it’s nothing too severe or major, healthcare professionals can accept that as a form of translation. Otherwise, it would be best to use other ways such as getting the translator. A lot of the times, patients will bring out their phone, especially if they’re from a younger generation, to help them translate.
We live in a very diverse country, not even just the city that I live in, whereby like I said before, it’s inexcusable that healthcare professionals are unable to see patients or get to the bottom of their issues simply because of a language barrier.

Last line

In conclusion, language barriers can make the delivery of high-quality healthcare very challenging. They have a negative impact on the quality of healthcare, patient safety, and the satisfaction of medical professionals and patients. While some health organizations provide interpreter services to address these problems, these services indirectly increase the cost of health services and increase the length of treatment visits. Online translation tools such as Google Translate and MediBabble however present possible solutions for overcoming these challenges.