title: Management of language discordance in clinical nursing practice--A critical review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Language plays an essential role in the provision of nursing care, since successful communication is a vital prerequisite to being able to provide appropriate nursing care efficiently and effectively. It is not known what kinds of interventions are effective in overcoming language discordance in nursing practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This critical review aimed to examine the interventions that are most successfully used to overcome language discordance in nursing.
  
  
  METHODS
  A critical review of the literature was performed and 24 relevant research papers were included.
  
  
  METHODS
  A search was carried out between January 2004 and September 2014 in MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Psychinfo, Germanistic online, Pragmatis and Linguistic & Language Behaviour Abstracts (LLBA).
  
  
  METHODS
  Both authors independently screened the titles (n=299), abstracts and full texts to decide which articles should be chosen. The inclusion criteria were: (1) articles examine the problem of language discordance in various health care settings and (2) articles published in English, German, French or Italian. Articles were included irrespective of their design. Data were analysed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program Tool (CASP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 24 publications met the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies (n=20) were focused on the nursing intervention of using an interpreter and three were describing the nursing assessment. The study designs of the included studies were mainly non-experimental studies, qualitative studies or reviews. The only suggested intervention described in the articles is the use of ad-hoc or professional interpreters for communicating with patients who do not speak the local language.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health care institutions should provide more strategies for clinical practice to overcome language discordance.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nursing, Research and Development Unit, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland. Electronic address: prob@zhaw.ch.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Probst
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nursing, Research and Development Unit, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland. Electronic address: imhl@zhaw.ch.
authors.forename: Lorenz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Imhof
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009729:Nursing
keywords: intervention; language discordance; nursing