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BMC Health Services Research
Published in: BMC Health Services Research 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Research article

Informed consent at stake? Language barriers in medical interactions with immigrant anaesthetists: a conversation analytical study

Authors: Damaris Borowski, Uwe Koreik, Udo Ohm, Claudia Riemer, Niels Rahe-Meyer

Published in: BMC Health Services Research | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Language barriers in doctor-patient interactions are still an understudied phenomenon. This is particularly true concerning interactions with immigrant physicians who are learners of the patient’s language; there is a lack of research even though labour migration is increasing internationally. This conversation analytical study focusses on language errors in one specific type of doctor-patient interaction, namely pre-anaesthesia evaluations with immigrant anaesthetists.

Methods

The study combines the research field of language acquisition with that of medical interaction. It is a qualitative study with an ethnomethodological framework which addresses the following research question: How do language errors, produced by immigrant anaesthetists, impact pre-anaesthesia evaluations? The primary data comes from naturally occurring pre-anaesthesia evaluations carried out by immigrant anaesthetists. The analysis method is a combination of conversation and error analysis.

Results

The study shows that the anaesthetists produced a considerable number of unintelligible utterances, due to various language errors. Despite the lack of understanding, hardly any negotiation of meaning occurred and both sides (anaesthetists and patients) claimed to be satisfied.

Conclusions

The findings appear to be contradictory. An explanation for this can be found in the effect of the roles and scripts that are given in pre-anaesthesia evaluations. Since no negotiation of meaning is initiated during the interactions, the anaesthetists’ insufficient language competence leads to a considerable impairment of informed consent, which is the main goal of the pre-anaesthesia evaluations. Based on these findings, the study reveals an urgent need for action regarding immigrant anaesthetists’ language skills.
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Metadata
Title
Informed consent at stake? Language barriers in medical interactions with immigrant anaesthetists: a conversation analytical study
Authors
Damaris Borowski
Uwe Koreik
Udo Ohm
Claudia Riemer
Niels Rahe-Meyer
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Health Services Research / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6963
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4389-2

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