On a recent prac I had to give a new mother post-natal information as per protocol. Unfortunately, my Vietnamese isn't quite up to scratch and I was told by the nurses she doesn't speak a word of English. I asked the nurses if she has any regular visitors who might be able to translate and it turned out she did. I came back the next day when they were visiting and found out their English wasn't that great either, but it still helped a lot. I tried my best to used gestures and work with the relatives translating. They were all friendly, however, there was either an awkward atmosphere or they knew less English than I thought. At times it was like one of those movie moments where the subtitles show how ridiculously wrong the translations are.
Upon reflection, I realized that it may have been culturally inappropriate for them to translate the questions about topics like bladder and bowel problems in front of the husband. If anyone happens to know about Vietnamese culture a comment on this would be much appreciated.
I also realized that organizing to see the patient with visitor/translators was not something I would have known to do a year ago... we are learning a lot after all!
Next time in this situation I would ask the translating relative if it is appropriate to ask the wife personal questions in the presence of a male.
1 comment:
Sorry don't know about the cultural issues but I've had similar experiences with having translators involved to help treaing patients, and I feel there are somethings that do get lost in translation, and whether as you have mentioned it is due to cultural issues or not we must still aim to get the best explaination across with words and also demonstrations.
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