For any mother the birth of a newborn child can be a challenging experience. As nurses it is part of our job to ensure their experience is positive. We can help do this by providing the information they will need to affective care for their newborn. This information includes topics such as, breastfeeding, jaundice, when to call your doctor and even how to put your baby to sleep. When the parents have an understanding of these topics before discharge it can largely reduce their natural anxiety accompanied with the transition to parenthood. Health teaching for new parents is seen as such an important aspect of care on post-partum floors it is actually a necessary component that needs to be covered before the hospital can discharge the patients. At the moment the strategies most hospitals use in Durham Region are Video’s and Parenting Booklets that are primarily based in the English Language. In such a culturally diverse region this becomes a barrier to providing the health teaching to patients who do not speak English as a first language (ESL). This reflection will explore the challenges I faced when providing health teaching to an ESL patient as well as the importance of health teaching in the post-partum area.
One of my assignments for a clinical rotation day this semester on the post-partum unit was an ESL mother and her newborn. The charting stated the mother was ESL, but she actually spoke almost no English, and the ESL father translated throughout our care. Although, the patient care is fundamentally the same, I chose this as the topic for my reflection because it was challenging, and a unique experience as a student nurse. Both parents despite our obvious barrier were very receptive of health teaching as well as patient throu...
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Works Cited
Conaty-Buck, S. (2009). Unblocking barriers: Clearing the channel to improve communication between practitioners and patients with low health literacy. (Order No. 3364864, University of Virginia). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 121. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/305011452?accountid=14694. (305011452).
Pashley, H.(2012). Overcoming barriers when caring for patients with limited english proficiency. Association of Operating Room Nurses.AORN Journal, 96(3), C10-C11. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0001-2092(12)00833-2
Mcwhirter, J., Todd, L., & Hoffman-goetz, L. (2011). Comparing written and oral measures of comprehension of cancer information by english-as-a-second-language chinese immigrant women. Journal of Cancer Education, 26(3), 484-9. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13187-011-0219-x
In the healthcare setting, teach-back is used when patient education is required (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 270). Teach-back is defined as a non-shaming process of asking patients to repeat information in their own words (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 268). It involves teaching and learning between two participants. Patients who have low health literacy levels are at risked for the need of teach-back. These include patients who are older than 60 years old (Eadie, 2014, p. 9). Older adult patients may have sensory alterations that impair communication (Potter & Perry, 2013, p. 181). In addition, patients from low socioeconomic status and minority groups are more likely to have inadequate health literacy (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 267). Nevertheless, assessment tools are available to identify a patient’s health literacy level (Eadie, 2014, p. 11)
The goal of this lesson is to explore how we can improve communication to eliminate language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in our organization and to establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, that provide safe, equal, and quality care to all our clients regardless of race, ethnic, or socioeconomic status. At the end of this lesson we should be
Goode, T. D., Dunne, M. C., & Bronheim, S. M. (2006). The evidence base for cultural and linguisitc competence in healthcare. The Commonweatlh Fund , 1-46.
pp. 197-205 Singleton, K., & Krause, E. (2009). Understanding cultural and linguistic barriers to health literacy. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(3). United Nations.
The videos depicted the reality of life in poor developing countries where the basic necessities of life are unavailable and inaccessible resulting in high infant/maternal mortality rates, diseases, and disability. The experience also broadened my knowledge in terms of how to communicate and educate this population of women who are so ingrained in the existing traditional, harmful practices and beliefs that cause unsafe health outcomes for themselves. Cultural awareness and communication will be key components to prevent early marriage, childbirth, and obstetric fistulas. The activity also increased my awareness of the limited resources, information, and support available for the low income population to meet their daily needs and health necessities. As trained health care providers, we are an important source of information, aide, and support system for our vulnerable clients especially during hard times. Based on this course learning, I will continue to make an effort to provide accessible health information (e.g., treatment, monetary resources, medications, etc); basic self care needs (e.g., ADLs); and socio-psychological support to my patients in my nursing practice.
I think the most important quality for a NICU nurse is thorough knowledge, or the drive to obtain more. I want to share knowledge with parents to make it easier for them to learn and know everything they can about their child’s medical condition. I can help translate between the parents and the doctor’s medical jargon to make parents feel more as ease and understand their
When reviewing this case-study, “A Difficult Birth,” by Karen Peterson-Iyer (2008), I learned about a pregnant immigrant, Ana, who is illiterate and unable to speak English. At nearly 36 weeks pregnant, Ana is admitted to East Valley Hospital with cramping and vaginal bleeding, where the medical personnel discover that Ana is severely anemic. Being severely anemic and pregnant, the medical team decides to perform an emergency Cesarean section. As Ana is only fluent in Mixteco, the staff attempts to get Ana’s consent before surgery, but decide to follow through regardless of if Ana understands them since it is declared an emergency situation. After the C-section, the medical team discovers that the newborn baby has low APGAR scores and is immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care
The patient is an American born, 30 y.o. that speaks and understands English on a college level. Since this was her second baby, she already had some understanding about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is beneficial for both mother and infant. I would explain that the infant would receive vitamins and nutrients and immunoglobulin. Breast-milk is easier on the infant’s stomach, making digestion easier. With the ingestion of breast-milk, infants are less likely to become obese in the future. I would inform the mother that breastfeeding would assist in body recovery from pregnancy and labor. Breastfeeding would help the uterus shrink back to pre-pregnancy size and stop the bleeding faster. I would also explain to the mother that breastfeeding could reduce her chances of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer and diabetes. Additionally, I would add that breast-milk is relatively
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). (2014). About health literacy. Retrieved from website: http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/healthliteracy/healthlitabout.html
This causes problems about the diagnosis as well as how nurses may tell patients about issues with their care. A way a nurse can overcome this is by having an interpreter when they know that a patient doesn’t know English, but this is not always the case for most nurses as there are not a lot of interpreters around. In health practice language isn’t always to do with culture but it can be the way a nurse or doctor speaks to the patients so they may adopt certain types of jargon and the patients may feel intimidated. Madeleine Leininger, who is the founder of transcultural nursing, says that providing competent care across all cultures and to be customized to fit patient’s different beliefs and traditions and different languages that a patient may speak. Divi et al (2007) claims that language barriers increase the risk of patient care and safety as they will find it difficult to understand what is going on with their care, so it is important for patients to have access to language services such as an
trust of the patient, if language is a barrier the nurse should pay attention to the means of
There are many different areas to consider when preparing for and having a newborn. Whether the pregnancy was planned or unplanned or the couple is married or not, a newborn baby brings new responsibilities. Having a baby also forces people to make adjustments both financially and within the family. Parents also express concerns and expectations when having a newborn comma especially when it is their first; including what roles each parent and family member should play, how much confidence they have in their parenting skills, and how much financial strain would be placed on the family once the newborn has arrived. The newest issue in today’s society is the fact that many women are delaying childbirth and having more children in their later years of life.
As identified by the CDC guidelines [as cited by Bastable et al., 2014, p.261] health literacy barriers include, “ not familiar with medical terms or how their bodies works; they are scared and confused when diagnosed with a serious illness, complicated self-care
It is vital that the mother has the reassurance that she can rely on her to solve the patient’s problems. A midwife must also have good, appropriate posture. (The position in which someone holds their body when sitting or standing) To illustrate this the midwife would use this constantly throughout the 9 months. This is another essential nonverbal communication to have because it strongly suggests she is attentive towards the patient. For example, the client may be talking about any matters and complications she is facing and the midwife will respond by appearing assertive because this will enable the patient to speak up to the midwife.
Luckily, I am very comfortable with patients, which made providing care very easy. I was not afraid to go into other patient’s rooms if they rang for help. I would try my best to help the patients; however, if I needed help I was not afraid to ask a fellow student or nurse on the staff. It is very important to be able to talk to patients and work as a team with fellow coworkers as it made the job easier. On the other hand, I need to go over mother and baby assessments to become more familiar with both. I was able to complete the assessments; I now need to do so in a timelier manner while ensuring I do not forget any key areas. Lastly, it is vital that I continue to go over patient teaching prior to clinical. Being comfortable with the patients made the teaching easier, though I need to become more familiar with all the material that needs to be taught.