Assessment in different languages

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in Oncology, Hematology, ER.

Does anyone one know where to buy a small guide or book that gives you simple assessment questions in different languages (chinese, tagalog, korean). We have a very big Asian patient population in our ER, and I want to be able ask patient a few questions before calling a language line.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

Won't help much unless you can understand the answers they are giving you. If you grab an online quick-phrases off of yahoo or google, it could help you translate some of the questions.

Found some android apps that might help...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Robert+Theis

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I've had Chinese patients and have tried the translation apps (L&D) and man it was hilarious!!!! They just don't translate correctly. You'd be best served to use your translator phone if you have one. If not? Laminated q cards with pictures and phrases with appropriate answers works best.

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

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We had one of these, for spainish speaking patients, can't recall who made it, it was a small, coil-bound bunch of cards, divided up by areas. It asked "yes" and "no" questions. We didn't have to use it often, as we had bilingual staff most of the time, or the patient had brought along their own interpreter.

but, it was handy every once in a blue moon.

also, our hospital had multi-lingual members of many depts, whose names and languages were on the supervisor's clipboard, that could be summoned for translations of less commonly encountered languages. Not sure how that works out with HIPPAA, but, it worked out for us.

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Specializes in ICU/PACU.

I wish all these people coming to the US would attempt to learn English.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Always use whatever resource your hospital states to use. If you don't and an error is made, its on you. When assessing a pt, use a medical translator.

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I wish all these people coming to the US would attempt to learn English.

the overwhelming majority DO. However, say you learned french,

doing your medical care, or your banking, or buying a home,

while conversing in another language, in a foreign country,

can be a frightening prospect. Many of those words, will be words you are not familiar with. Even my english speaking patients often interrupt me, "Pancreatitus? What all does THAT mean?"

I do not look down on people who are living in the USA, but, are not yet adept enough with our language---which is one of the most difficult to learn, as it has so so many ways to spell and pronounce any given word----------at all. No reason to cop a judgmental attitude, who knows why they came here? or how long they've had to learn the language? It takes a long time to be comfortable enough,

to properly discern another language

spoken at what always seems a very fast pace

with various accents by various staff members and new, unfamiliar words

when you are a stressed out patient in an ER.

Many immigrants arrive in USA to escape wars, crime areas, or poverty you can't imagine. There's not a lot i wouldn't do to protect my children, and if being judged as "not trying" by some nurse in an ER is a price to pay for getting my kids out of a war zone, yes, i'd pay that price.

ps---i don't even get honked off to "Press 1, for english" either.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I always remind myself that when a person speaks English with an accent, it just means they are smart enough to speak more than one language. :-) I could also write volumes about Americans who live overseas and don't bother to learn the language - I grew up in Europe, and that was pretty common.

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Specializes in ER.

I have always used this book, and found it great. The questions generally require 'yes or no' answers, so its possible to complete a reasonable assessment using just this one text.

I worked in a London England ER for over a decade, where the vast majority of residents are immigrants, and we just cannot learn all languages. We most commonly used Farsi, Gujerati, Punjabi, Polish, Arabic, Romanian and Somalian, and it worked great in all cases.

It used to be a 'real' book, but now i just checked the link and its online only now.

Bookmark it, its wonderful!

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Emergency multilingual phrasebook : Department of Health - Publications

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Specializes in ER.

Ok, so i just found the 'real' version is still out there, its just a little difficult to find. Here it is -

Emergency Multilingual Phrasebook - A4 Spiral Bound Book

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I always remind myself that when a person speaks English with an accent, it just means they are smart enough to speak more than one language. :-) I could also write volumes about Americans who live overseas and don't bother to learn the language - I grew up in Europe, and that was pretty common.

reminds me of old joke:

What do you call someone who can speak 3 languages?

"Tri-lingual"

What do you call someone who can speak 2 languages?

"Bi-lingual"

What do you call someone who can only speak one language?

"american":laugh:

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Specializes in ED.

We are very lucky in that we have an in-house Spanish translator in the hospital on the day shift. When that group is unavailable or we have a patient needing another language translated, we have a MARTI computer. I cannot remember what it stands for (My "A" real-time trusted interpreter?) but it is a tele-computer that we can dial into wirelessly and connect with a company that provides 100s of different live translators on a TV monitor. If we cannot view a live person, we can at least speak to someone via the telephone. It has come in handy MANY times for us.

It is really great, especially for triage and assessments!

m

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