Rosemary Macy, nursing faculty, presented at the Ninth Annual Magic in Teaching Conference: Preparing Healthcare Providers for the Future Through Inter-professional Education and Simulation, held Nov. 12-14 in Irvine, Calif. Macy presented a poster, titled “Inter-Professional Simulation: Nursing and Language Students Collaborate in Providing Diabetic Education for Non-English Speaking Clients.”
The poster described a simulation scenario that Macy and fellow nursing faculty members, Molly Prengaman and Julie Carr, created for NURS 416: Community and Public Health Nursing students to practice using interpreters effectively while providing patient care. The scenario also gave language students an opportunity to practice applying their interpretation skills in a variety of situations in order to improve proficiency.
Students from the language department served as interpreters and non-English speaking patients while nursing students provided patient education via an interpreter. Language department students had the opportunity to practice their spoken language skills and enhance their medical interpretation abilities. Nursing students had the chance to experience firsthand the challenges of communicating with a non-English speaking patient via an interpreter while maintaining high quality of care standards. Students from both professional programs had the opportunity to practice their skills in a non-threatening environment, where actual patient care would not be compromised, thus increasing the likelihood that when the students do encounter a similar situation in professional practice their performance will be enhanced. High quality interpretive services utilized appropriately by healthcare professionals enhance patient safety and improve outcomes.
This simulation has been successfully piloted with Department of World Languages and School of Nursing students. Faculty and students from both professions provided positive feedback on this important this collaborative effort. The simulation is being incorporated into a senior level community and population health nursing course Spring 2014.