Bridging the language gap: a co-designed quality improvement project to engage professional interpreters for women duing labour
Jane Yelland A B H , Mary Anne Biro C , Wendy Dawson A , Elisha Riggs A B , Dannielle Vanpraag A , Karen Wigg D , John Antonopoulos E , Jenny Morgans D , Jo Szwarc F , Chris East C D and Stephanie Brown A B GA Healthy Mothers Healthy Families Research Group, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia. Email: wendy.dawson@mcri.edu.au; elisha.riggs@mcri.edu.au; dannielle.vanpraag@mcri.edu.au; stephanie.brown@mcri.edu.au
B Department General Practice and Primary Health Care Academic Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia.
C School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Wellington & Blackburn Roads, Clayton, Vic., 3800, Australia. Email: Maryanne.biro@monash.edu; christine.east@monash.edu
D Monash Women’s, Monash Health, David Street, Dandenong, Vic. 3175, Australia. Email: Karen.Wigg@monashhealth.org; Jenny.Morgans@monashhealth.org
E Community and Allied Health, Monash Health, 135 David Street, Dandenong, Vic. 3175, Australia. Email: John.Antonopoulos@monashhealth.org
F Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, 6 Gardiner Street, Brunswick, Vic. 3056, Australia. Email: szwarcj@foundationhouse.org.au
G Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia.
H Corresponding author. Email: jane.yelland@mcri.edu.au
Australian Health Review 41(5) 499-504 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH16066
Submitted: 9 March 2016 Accepted: 20 July 2016 Published: 29 August 2016
Abstract
Objective The aim of the study was to improve the engagement of professional interpreters for women during labour.
Methods The quality improvement initiative was co-designed by a multidisciplinary group at one Melbourne hospital and implemented in the birth suite using the plan-do-study-act framework. The initiative of offering women an interpreter early in labour was modified over cycles of implementation and scaled up based on feedback from midwives and language services data.
Results The engagement of interpreters for women identified as requiring one increased from 28% (21/74) at baseline to 62% (45/72) at the 9th month of implementation.
Conclusion Improving interpreter use in high-intensity hospital birth suites is possible with supportive leadership, multidisciplinary co-design and within a framework of quality improvement cycles of change.
What is known about the topic? Despite Australian healthcare standards and policies stipulating the use of accredited interpreters where needed, studies indicate that services fall well short of meeting these during critical stages of childbirth.
What does the paper add? Collaborative approaches to quality improvement in hospitals can significantly improve the engagement of interpreters to facilitate communication between health professionals and women with low English proficiency.
What are the implications for practice? This language services initiative has potential for replication in services committed to improving effective communication between health professionals and patients.
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