Our staff now have another handy way of communicating with patients who may not speak English as their first language, thanks to the kind donation of booklets from the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network.
The multi-lingual booklet includes basic medical questions in English and the same questions in numerous other languages, allowing staff to show the relevant page to a patient to ask a question and for the patient to respond via diagrams at the back of the book. For example you could ask ‘where is the pain’ and the patient could indicate via a full-body diagram where it hurts, all using the booklet.
The James Paget staff are a diverse team, with skilled staff from all over the world working at the hospital. This has numerous benefits including that many of our staff are multi-lingual and often volunteer to help support patients who may not have English as their first language.
We also have access to translators, via INTRAN, when they are required, but the new booklet, kindly donated by International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network gives staff another tool to assist with day to day communication.
The multi-lingual booklets are commonly used by seafarers to communicate in medical situations, but now wards, clinical areas and departments around the hospital will hold a copy to help facilitate communication after 40 of the booklets were provided via one of our hospital chaplains Peter Paine, who is also Great Yarmouth Port Chaplain.
He said; “I thought the booklets might be useful for nurses, paramedics and healthcare staff who need to speak to patients quickly about their medical needs and after speaking with the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network they kindly have donated 40 copies to the hospital.”
Deputy Director of Nursing Jacky Copping who received the booklets from Peter, said; “These are just one of the methods of communication available to staff to facilitate conversations with patients who may not have English as their first language, but anything that increases understanding and encourages easy communication is valuable. Having these on wards gives another means of engaging with patients alongside more formal methods.”