Question

Discussion Question #1: A nurse working in a physician's office is helping the physician explain a medical diagnosis and proposed treatment plan to a middle-aged woman who is a recent immigrant from Thailand. The woman speaks no English, and her daughter is attempting to translate the conversation. The woman has metastasized lung cancer, and her prognosis is not good. The nurse notices a pronounced hesitation in the daughter's translation of this news to her mother, and she suspects the daughter has not relayed the information correctly because the patient seems undisturbed by the news. Assume that the nurse and the physician must obtain informed consent from the patient in the scenario. Should the rely solely on the daughter's ability to translate? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

This kind of situation happens most of the time when the health care provider deals with some kind of foreign people, but it is very critical to deal with the situation in a right manner. In this case the health provider tries to get the consent from the particular individual who is facing a certain severe type of disease. But she had a communication problem and her daughter helps to make the conversation in a convenient way. But because of the severity of the problem,it seems like the translating daughter is struggling to express the actual condition to her mother.

In this situation the health professionals should arrange someone who knows that language well and should replace her daughter translation. The alternate one should needs to be very professional . In case if it is difficult to find the right assistance and have no way unless of her daughter translation, we may insist her to explain exactly what we are saying to her and explain the importance of the situation to her daughter. In this way we can deal with this case in a right manner.