降低門診護理人員使用英文溝通困難度

Improving the English Ability of the Nursing Staff in an Outpatient Department

隨著「營造英語生活環境」之政策，建構醫院雙語就醫環境，保障外籍病患就診安全性及便利性，已是各醫院努力的目標。本專案目的係降低門診護理人員使用英文溝通之困難度，訪談50位外籍病患看診服務滿意度中，只有32%呈現滿意，主要原因為語言溝通不良；另有3件門診外籍病患檢查延後，亦因溝通不良所導致。自2006年4月至12月，加強護理人員自我學習，藉由門診英文會話書面參考指引、製作英文光碟片，及安排英文訓練課程之改善措施，使困難度由9.12分降至4.91分，有顯著的改善。語言的學習非短期可以立竿見影，須長期持續的練習，期望本專案相關的介入措施，可提供其他門診單位之參考。

As part of the policy 'Building English into working conditions', it is our goal to construct a bilingual environment at this hospital in order to ensure the safety and convenience of foreign patients. The aim of this project was to improve the English communication skills of staff working in the hospital outpatient department. After interviewing foreign patients, only 32% of them were satisfied with our service. The major reason was poor English speaking ability among the staff. Specifically, three examinations were delayed due to poor communication. As a result, from April to December 2006, we engaged in an obvious effort to improve the situation. This was done by emphasizing self-learning by the staff using English teaching material on dialogues appropriate to an outpatient situation, by producing and distributing CDs in English and by arranging English training classes. The level of difficulties dropped from 9.12 to 4.91. However, we found there had not been a significant improvement as a result of this short-term learning strategy and it is clear that there is a need for continuous practice of English by the staff in the outpatient department. We hope that this project can provide a good example to other outpatient departments and that they may find our approaches useful when coping with a similar problem.