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Effective communication between nurses and their patients is critical for positive health outcomes. It is a challenge particularly evident in South Florida, an area defined by a variety of languages and multi-cultural communities. It is also one of the reasons why healthcare providers specifically recruit and hire nurses who are fluent in more than one language.

VITAS® Healthcare provides hospice care to patients and families throughout South Florida from the Palm Beaches to the Keys. Being able to communicate in the patient’s native language is a comfort, and if you can’t, it can be a stressor to the patient and the family. If we are able to speak a patient’s language and speak to their culture, it makes everyone more comfortable having caregivers in their homes right from the start.
 
Highest Demand: Spanish and Creole
In South Florida, nurses who are fluent in Spanish and Creole are in highest demand because of the predominance of Hispanic and Haitian residents, but VITAS occasionally encounters a need for nurses and staff members who are fluent in Russian. All VITAS patients indicate their preferred language when they sign admission forms, and the hospice company makes all efforts to match team nurses and families based on language fluency and preferences.
 
Language proficiency by nurses is important so that patients receive accurate information about their care. It is uniquely important to the hospice profession because the majority of end-of-life care is provided in patients’ homes. Even though hospice care is a team effort, the bulk of one-on-one bedside care at any moment—whether in a private home, nursing home or assisted living facility—is provided by nursing staff.
 
“The more languages our staff members can speak, the easier our job is,” agrees Karen Peterson, senior vice president and chief nursing office at VITAS for 25 years. “Some patients can’t even say the word ‘hospice’ because of the emotional and psychological aspects of language that surround the dying process. But when our nurses, families and patients understand each other’s languages and cultural nuances, we’re more confident that patients are making informed decisions, making the right decisions and receiving the best possible care because everyone is on the same page.”
 
Language Fluency Is Information and Comforting
VITAS prefers not to rely on family members to translate medical conversations between nurses and patients, because complex or difficult information might not be interpreted or transmitted correctly. Sometimes, a family member’s own biases or beliefs might alter the nature of the information during translation.
 
When necessary, VITAS will rely on other team members who are fluent in a patient’s language or ask a staff member at the nursing home or assisted living facility to serve as a translator. Additionally, an on-call medical translation service is always available.
 
Another language-related issue occasionally arises in hospice care. Alzheimer’s patients and some patients in the last stages of dying often revert to their native tongue—even if it has not been their most recent primary language—because that is where comfort is at the end of life. Nurses who can communicate in more than one language can help ease end-of-life transitions and support quality of life at the end of life.
 
Language goes to the core of care-related competencies in the healthcare field, especially hospice care. Cultural understanding and language are critical parts of our definition of competence. We match our nurses with our families to the best of our ability to help us deliver high-quality care.