Since 2004, Home Office statistics reveal an increased influx in the number of migrant workers to the United Kingdom, with a corresponding increase in resultant language diversity. Such diversity poses many challenges for health care workers. Studies show that in order to facilitate communication, health care workers commonly use family and friends to interpret. This approach has the potential for several negative consequences which includes amongst others, poor health outcomes, limited access to preventative services, and dissatisfaction. Attempts to improve communication have focused on benefits gained from professional face-to-face interpretation. Subsequently, the use of professional interpreters through telephone access has developed to become an increasingly pragmatic choice amongst health care providers. There is a dearth of research on the use of telephone interpreter services in health care, and this study is the first to explore such use in health visiting. The study employs an action research model to process the introduction to and evaluation of a telephone interpreter service for health visiting. Uniquely, health visitors constitute the first point of contact for many migrant workers with children under five years old when they presented for health care services. Their role requires effective communication to complete accurate health needs assessments, to perform developmental checks and to offer health advice. Locally, health visitors reported several concerns regarding the communication of health care requirements, and consequently, were sufficiently interested to participate in this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:662198 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Recchia, Natasha |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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