“It somehow worked in the end”: Managing demanding communication situations between nurses and migrant families in the paediatric hospital setting through the use of communication aids

Context: Clear and comprehensible communication is essential in the hospital setting and is crucial for the well-being of patients. However, maintaining cost-effective health care systems while ensuring efficient communication, is particularly challenging for healthcare staff. This is a relevant issue, especially when migrant patients are involved. Language barriers constrain medical treatment, can endanger patients’ safety and are a notable challenge to hospital staff, especially to nurses. To provide appropriate treatment, staff must often rely on communication aids.
Aim: The aim of this project was to research which criteria were most important in the development of digital communication aids, to improve the care of paediatric patients in the hospital setting.
Research question: What requirements do nurses have regarding communication aids in the care of migrant paediatric patients and their relatives?
Methods: This paper is the subsequent part of a previously-conducted (Kaufmann et al. 2020). The initial study was conducted by the same interdisciplinary team consisting of design and nursing researchers. It utilized Thematic Analysis qualitative research methodology. The following steps of data collection were undertaken: (1) literature research on two topics corresponding to the research questions, (2) a focus group interview with paediatric hospital nurses, (3) observation of the communication between paediatric nurses and children/parents through shadowing, (4) individual interviews with paediatric nurses and (5) a focus group interview with experts.
Findings: The initial study revealed that a variety of communicative challenges influenced the care of migrant paediatric patients (Kaufmann et al. 2020). The results also highlighted which requirements communication aids should fulfil, in order to increase their acceptability by nurses, paediatric patients and their relatives. Using case examples, this paper focuses on these requirements, for the design of sustainable communication aids.

Keywords: communication aids, nursing
staff, children, migrant patients,
foreign-language patients