Strategies Used by Prehospital Providers to Overcome Language Barriers

Area of Science:

• Prehospital Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Health Communication

Background:

• Language barriers are frequent in prehospital settings.
• Research on how emergency medical services (EMS) providers manage language discordance is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify communication strategies used by EMS providers to overcome language barriers.
• To understand the limitations of these strategies in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods study involving surveys of telecommunicators and qualitative interviews with field providers.
• International data collection from New Mexico (USA) and Western Cape (South Africa).
• Integration of quantitative and qualitative data for comprehensive analysis.

Main Results:

• Telecommunicators favored telephonic interpreter services but faced delays; field providers relied on bystanders, multilingual colleagues, and non-verbal communication.
• Identified limitations include time delays, breaches of confidentiality, and inaccurate interpretations.
• Participants proposed resources to enhance communication with patients facing language barriers.

Conclusions:

• Prehospital providers across different regions and roles utilize similar informal strategies to address language barriers.
• These strategies, despite their widespread use, present significant limitations.
• There is a clear need for improved communication tools and training for EMS providers.