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Registered Nurses' Perceptions of Their Communication with Spanish‐Speaking Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina: An Exploratory Study
Author(s) -
Padgett Roslyn,
Barrus Anne Griffith
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
public health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1525-1446
pISSN - 0737-1209
DOI - 10.1111/j.1525-1446.1992.tb00099.x
Subject(s) - nursing , focus group , language barrier , perception , exploratory research , health care , population , psychology , medicine , environmental health , political science , business , sociology , neuroscience , anthropology , law , marketing
Communication forms the foundation for all that nurses do. Recently, nurses working with migrant farmworkers have become challenged as the language of this population has become predominantly Spanish. To explore how nurses in North Carolina are managing communication issues, 55 nurses at 12 state health care agencies that serve migrant farmworkers was surveyed. Data were collected to determine what nurses believed about various communication issues involving these Spanish‐speaking clients, including how they were presently communicating with them, in what areas of nursing functions they believed communication barriers were problematic, what they were doing to improve their communication, and what they envisioned the potential solutions were concerning communication barriers. Language differences proved to be substantial barriers to adequate nursing care for these individuals. Nurses cited many problems and said that they were receiving little assistance from their agencies to improve direct communication with the clients. Responses indicated a need for and a willingness by nurses to focus on improving communication with Spanish‐speaking clients. Classes held at their agencies were seen as the most effective way of learning Spanish.