3.International 21.National Public Health Congress, 3.International 21.National Public Health Congress

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HEALTH WORKERS’S COMMUNICATION ABILITIES and THEIR COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS WITH IMMIGRANTS
Seçil DURAN, Sevil ALBAYRAK

Last modified: 2019-09-18

Abstract


Introduction and Purpose: The way of communication of health care workers with their patients affects the quality of the service provided to patients, the treatment they receive and the results of treatment. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the level of communication skills of health workers with each other and with patients and to determine the communication difficulties that migrant patients have experienced in recent years.

Materials and Methods: The population of this descriptive study consisted of 562 health care workers in Yozgat City Hospital and 8 family health centers in Yozgat city center. It was aimed to reach all health workers and the sample was not selected. However, a total of 450 health workers (302 nurses / health officers, 84 physicians and 64 midwives), 80.1% of the study population, consisted of the fact that some of the employees were reported or on leave and some did not want to do the survey. The data were collected in the period of 1 January 2018-1 April 2018. Personal Information Form was used as data collection tool and 5-likert type, Communication Skills Inventory (HCI) consisting of 3 sub-dimensions and 45 questions developed to measure communication skills in individuals. Written permission was obtained from Yozgat Provincial Health Directorate to conduct this study and from the Yozgat Bozok University Clinical Research Ethics Committee to evaluate the ethics committee's suitability. The purpose of the study was explained to the participants and a üllü Voluntary Consent Form was obtained during the implementation of the study.

Results: 56.4% of the health care workers are women, 43.3% are between the ages of 26-33, 60.0% are married and have undergraduate education and 73.6% have been working for 10 years or less. Health workers scored an average of 157.02 ± 13.23 points from the total CSI. The total score means of the CSI of health care workers was higher in the 26-33 age group than in the other age group and in the single age group (p <0.05). 49.6% of health care workers stated that they looked at 51 or more migrants, 94.2% did not receive in-service training on migrants, 94.4% stated that they did not know their medical history, and 67.3% connected immigrants to their language barrier. 68.9%  think that they provide services without a translator and 76.0% think that migrants increase the workload.

Conclusion and Suggestions: In order to improve the communication skills of health workers, it is recommended to increase in-service trainings and to increase the number of health translators in order to communicate more effectively with migrants.

Keywords: Health, Health Workers, Communication Skills, Migration, Immigrant