This item is accessible only to the Washington University community.
Off-Campus WUSTL Users: Click the “Off-Campus Download” button below. You will be prompted to log in using your WUSTL Key.
Language
English (en)
Date of Award
5-1-2024
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
Language barriers entrench health disparities by limiting healthcare access and quality for migrant communities. In this thesis, I take a qualitative approach to understanding patient perspectives on language access in medical institutions. First, I review qualitative studies on patient and family experiences with language discordance in healthcare systems globally. Interviewees reported disparities in care access and quality due to absent or inadequate language services, as well as a general preference for professional over ad hoc interpretation. Next, I investigate language access in the emergency departments (EDs) at Barnes Jewish Hospital (BJH) and St. Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH) through semi-structured interviews with Spanish-speaking patients and the parents of underage patients. I perform an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of interview transcripts to identify recurring themes from these conversations and describe the language services available at BJH and SLCH. The most common language barrier in these EDs was a lack of interpretation services at security and triage, which mirrors findings from other qualitative studies. Participants also reported feelings of powerlessness and responsibility for learning English when they encountered language disparities. I apply my findings to recommend that the BJH and SLCH EDs hire more bilingual staff members, increase access to interpreting services, guarantee the translation of discharge papers, and support future studies into language access. Healthcare institutions on a global scale must dismantle language barriers to support the health of migrant communities.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/vr7p-9046
Mentor
Steven Hirsch
Recommended Citation
Wang, Shan, "“Que nos Tomen en Cuenta’: Qualitative Investigations into Healthcare Language Access" (2024). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 246.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/vr7p-9046
Comments
Accessibility Notice: This document is a scanned text that has been automatically processed using Python's Tesseract Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine to provide a text alternative for assistive software. Formatting or character recognition discrepancies may exist.