The high number of non-English-speaking patients being treated in the orthopaedic ward of a Dublin hospital has prompted the development of detailed orthopaedic-specific translation booklets in seven different languages.
Up to 25 per cent of admissions to Tallaght Hospital's orthopaedic ward are non-English-speaking, according to Marie Walsh, orthopaedic clinical facilitator at the hospital.
The majority of these patients were admitted following serious construction or road traffic accidents, she said.
"While non-English-speaking patients have always been an occurrence on the ward, in the past two to three years it has gone from being an occasional to an everyday event," said Ms Walsh.
On any given day, at the 37-bed orthopaedic ward there would be at least one non-English-speaking patient and, at times, up to 25 per cent of orthopaedic patients at the hospital do not speak English, she said. The majority are men aged 18 to 40.
Polish speakers form the largest proportion of this group of patients, followed by Latvian, Albanian and Russian speakers. Romanian-, Chinese- and Arabicspeaking patients are also common.
"Hospital can be a daunting experience even for English speakers. For non-English speakers, even the simplest things can be worrying if they cannot understand," Ms Walsh said.
Routine ward activities and basic care questions such as, "where is your pain?", "has the painkiller worked?", "are you hungry?", "we need to turn you on your side to look at your wound" or "can you feel your toes?" are difficult to explain.
In an orthopaedic setting, not being able to communicate with a patient about issues such as circulation, mobility and numbness could mean the loss of a limb.
Tallaght Hospital is the national referral centre for acetabular fractures (severe pelvic fractures) and, as a result, the ward deals with severely injured patients. While translation services are used in the hospital for non-English-speaking patients on admission and for consent, there was a growing need for added communication supports for both the patient and the carer, according to Ms Walsh.
"The translation service was very useful but it was not practical to call a translator for every single question," she said.
Prior to the creation of the booklets, nurses, physiotherapists and other care-givers had to rely on key sentences scribbled down by translators during a translation session.
The detailed translation booklets in seven different languages now help facilitate open dialogue between patients and care-givers. They cover areas such as pain, breathing, allergies, nutrition, mobility and wound observation, as well as key words relating to the multidisciplinary needs of an orthopaedic patient.
A copy of the booklet is given to the patient to use at any time during their stay. The hospital hopes to develop similar booklets for use on other speciality wards.
For more information about the booklet, contact Marie Walsh at 01-4142000 or e-mail mariewalsh2@amnch.ie