Confronting Language Barriers in Orthoptics

Abstract

A language barrier can be one of the most frustrating problems when trying to conduct any kind of medical examination. Orthoptics is no exception. Our clinic welcomes French speaking patients who, in a primarily English environment, present a special challenge to our staff. To avoid loss of valuable information and to insure a good rapport, particularly with our pediatric patients, we have created a series of language aids for our orthoptists and students. The first is a self-teaching audio-tape program with slides that goes through the important phases of an orthoptic examination. Key questions and instructions and their pronunciations are practiced. The second aid is of a collection of resource cards, indexed according to the orthoptic test attempted. These are used “in the field” and designed to get the examiner out of a language void. We do not strive toward perfect bilingual-ism but the system has helped give confidence to our staff; this has resulted in a more positive attitude toward our French speaking patients.

• Bilingualism
• French
• language barriers
• orthoptic examination
• quality of care
• translation