Challenges Related Language Barrier as Hindrance to Cooperation

Language Barriers in Nursing Practice
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1 Introduction
One of the issues affecting patient care has been identified as language barrier CITATION Squ14 \l 1033 (Squires & Jacobs, 2014). Language has been found as one of the biggest obstacles to holistic patient care globally CITATION Sch161 \l 1033 (Schwei, et al., 2016). It poses real challenge in assessment of patient's baseline and can cause continuity problems in healthcare. The problem of language barrier may be more serious in elderly people who may be confused   and could be scared by unfamiliar surroundings of the hospital CITATION van16 \l 1033 (van Rosse, de Bruijne, Suurmond, Essink-Bot, & Wagner, 2016). The problem may be aggravated by pre-existing mental health or dementia or conditions.
There can be incorrect assessments or interpretations in case a patient is not able to communicate needs and symptoms CITATION Pen16 \l 1033 (Penney, Poulter, Cole, & Wellard, 2016). If a patient is misunderstood based on cultural perspectives it may be difficult for nursing staff to effectively address his/her needs. On grounds of ethical issues, this can result into loss of autonomies and acquiring consent regarding treatments CITATION Squ14 \l 1033 (Squires & Jacobs, 2014).
This article discusses various ways in which language barrier can affect delivery of patient care and how the issues can be solved.
2 Challenges Related to Language Barrier
1 Language Barrier as Hindrance to Cooperation
The inability for patients, family members and nursing practitioners to cross language barriers is has been found to be brought about be a sense of helplessness CITATION Sad14 \l 1033 (Sadeghi‐Bazargani, Tabrizi, & Azami‐Aghdash, 2014). It can result in inadequate cooperation among staff and between staff patients. This may result in patients misunderstanding medical procedures and recommendation given explained to them by nurse who does not understand the patient’s language CITATION Hob17 \l 1033 (Hoben, et al., 2017). These language problems of exist in other hospitals where the official language English and patients or staff who are not conversant with the language find it difficult to communicate and fully cooperate within and with other hospitals concerning a patient.
An example of an hospital in Germany, Guam Hospital, where most nurses were Filipino and communicated Tagalog.  This resulted in other staff and nursing interns being left out of the system and thus it became difficult to cooperate CITATION Alm15 \l 1033 (Almutairi, 2015). The old staff were not comfortable to speak in English and would do so only when the colleagues insisted. It gave rise to distasteful situation in terms communication. The fellow staff and interns felt their Filipino colleagues were discussing them reading from their gestures CITATION Sch161 \l 1033 (Schwei, et al., 2016).
2 Patients with Hearing and Sight Impairments
The problem of language barrier is critical in patients with hearing impairments and/or blindness as well as persons with delayed development or without expressive language CITATION Bur17 \l 1033 (Burgess, 201...