Equity of Care: Promoting the Use of Interpretation Services

Introduction: Language barriers significantly impact the care received by patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Effective communication is the foundation of the nurse-patient relationship, where the patient feels cared for, heard, and included in shared decision-making. Both nurses and LEP patients deserve efficient ways to interact, thereby optimizing patient outcomes. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement an educational in-service for staff nurses on the use of interpretation services, aiming to enhance their knowledge and attitudes toward these services.

Methodology: An educational in-service was implemented in four hospital units. Staff nurses completed the same knowledge and attitude questionnaire before the in-service, immediately after the in-service, and a third time, 90 days after the in-service.

Results: Nurses’ knowledge significantly increased after the educational in-service, as evidenced by increased mean scores. Nurses’ attitudes towards the use of interpretation services improved, as evidenced by increased median scores. Staff nurses displayed a decrease in barriers to using interpretation services, as evidenced by attitude questionnaire responses.

Discussion: Nurses demonstrated improved knowledge and attitudes after the educational in-service. The knowledge gained and improvement in attitudes were sustained for three months. Hospitals may benefit from incorporating an educational session on the use of interpretation services into their orientation and new-hire onboarding processes, as well as annually, for employees.

Keywords: Limited English Proficiency, Interpretation Services, Communication, and Health Equity.