Brooks Emma
International Centre for Intercultural Studies, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK.
PEC Innov. 2025 Jan 22;6:100378. doi: 10.1016/j.pecinn.2025.100378. eCollection 2025 Jun.
This study aimed to investigate the experience of multilingual maternity staff working in UK NHS hospitals.
As part of an exploratory qualitative descriptive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with multilingual healthcare professionals, working in perinatal care in different NHS trusts across the United Kingdom. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and subsequently analyzed using thematic analysis.
Where practitioners were able to draw on their linguistic skills, they felt that multilingualism was a specialism and appreciated by colleagues. Practitioners also felt that the utilisation of shared languages could boost the confidence of women and birthing people, as well as improving their understanding and sense of wellbeing. Conversely, several practitioners felt an obligation to offer linguistic support, noting that it added to a workload burden, and fear of litigation, that was not experienced by monolingual colleagues.
Strategic utilisation of linguistically skilled NHS practitioners may hold the potential for advancing equity of care for migrant populations, who are regularly and disproportionately represented in data recording adverse outcomes.
Investing in institutional support and formal accreditation for multilingual health professionals would enable them to be able to operate with confidence, redress (invisibilized) workloads and contribute to advancing parity of care for migrant patients.
本研究旨在调查在英国国民健康服务体系（NHS）医院工作的多语言产科工作人员的经历。
作为探索性定性描述方法的一部分，对在英国不同NHS信托机构从事围产期护理工作的多语言医疗专业人员进行了半结构化访谈。访谈进行了录音、转录，随后使用主题分析法进行分析。
当从业者能够运用他们的语言技能时，他们认为多语言能力是一项专长，并得到同事的认可。从业者还认为，使用共同语言可以增强女性和产妇的信心，提高她们的理解能力和幸福感。相反，一些从业者感到有义务提供语言支持，指出这增加了工作量负担，并带来了单语言同事未曾经历过的诉讼担忧。
战略性地利用具备语言技能的NHS从业者，可能有潜力促进为移民人群提供公平的护理，在记录不良结果的数据中，移民人群经常占比过高。
投资于对多语言健康专业人员的机构支持和正式认证，将使他们能够自信地开展工作，纠正（被忽视的）工作量，并有助于提高为移民患者提供护理的平等性。
