Steps to Remove Language Barriers

02 Aug 2010, ZaoBao

Question

Name of the Person: 游婉华

医护人员需掌握方言

新加坡不乏一批敬业乐业、经验丰富的医护人员，为本地公共及私立医院及医疗机关的病患提供专业及优质的医疗服务。

多年来，西方国家诸 如英国、美国、澳洲等，一直都在狮城展开招聘医护人员的活动，甚至不惜以优厚的薪酬及待遇，吸引本地医护人才加入异国的医疗团队。本土医护人员流失海外， 致使我国各大医疗机构不得不设法填补空缺，向人口稠密的邻国如菲律宾、马来西亚等地，甚至远赴印度、中国招募当地人才加入我国的医疗行列。

凡是在医院或疗 养院工作的，不论是医生、护士、药剂师、物理治疗师、放射师或是在日间专科诊所任职的行政人员，在执勤时必然会与病人有所接触。众所周知，医院病患来自社 会各界。其中，年长的病人，无论是住院或是回返医院复诊，都比较习惯于使用方言来与医院工作人员交谈。然而，来自海外的医护人员在和本地的年长病患沟通 时，必然会有隔阂。由于彼此语言不通，好比鸡同鸭讲一般，病人自然无法表达自己的意思，而海外医护人员也没法及时有效地为病人服务。试想，病人若有何需要 或想向执勤的护士申诉身体不适的话，尽管已触动病床边的紧急按钮，护理人员也立即赶往协助，但是如果护士听不懂病人所说的话，就无法给病人提供所需的服 务，甚至会影响到病人的病情。

随着越来越多的年轻 国人加入医疗护理行业，各大医院和医疗机关应该安排属下工作人员参加本土方言会话训练班，好让本地医疗服务人员能掌握方言，与年长人士交谈时也就不会出现 隔阂。虽然有些医院聘请了翻译人员，专门为有需要的病人提供语言翻译，但此举绝非长期解决问题的策略。与其增聘语言翻译人才，有关当局何不考虑为本地及海 外医护人员开办基础会话班和方言训练班，确保每名职员都能听懂基本华语及方言里边的某些常用词，这样就无需等到懂得方言或华语的同事在场时，才能知晓病人 究竟有何要求，医护人员本身即可随时协助病人。

本地医院里的华族医生并不都懂得说华语，一些年轻医生也无法用方言与乐龄人士交谈，时而得有劳行政人员或是家属从旁充当翻译员，医生才可对病患病情的进展有全面的了解。病患在医院接受治疗时，能说口流利的英语固然最佳，毕竟他们可在医院里“通行无阻”。可是，医院也必须照顾到不谙英语而仅懂得说方言及华语的国人。有效的语言沟通，加之完善的医疗照顾，必然能在病患康复道路上助其一臂之力。

Reply

Name of the Person: Karen Tan (Ms)

Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Health 

In “医护人员需掌握方言”(21 Jul), Ms You Wan Hua highlighted the need for both local and foreign medical staff to be conversant in Mandarin and Chinese dialects, as not many elderly patients can understand English.

We agree with Ms You on the importance of improving communications with patients. We have basic conversational courses to improve proficiency in Mandarin and local dialects for our foreign nurses  as well as for local staff who need such training. For foreign nurses, these language courses are conducted within the first nine months of their hire. In the polyclinics and restructured hospitals, more than 68% of the doctors can speak Mandarin. Many of our medical staff can also converse in simple dialects, and when needed, healthcare workers with the relevant language skills are deployed to help enhance communications between their colleagues and patients. This may result in some inconvenience to patients, but this does not result in any compromise on their medical care.

At the same time, we are mindful that in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Singapore, there is a need for healthcare workers who can cover the range of languages used locally. As such, apart from Mandarin and Chinese dialects, we also have staff who can converse in Malay and Tamil. As most of us are unable to master all four official languages plus dialects, we seek the understanding of patients and their families should they encounter instances when medical staff may not be able to adequately converse with them in their preferred language.