Instructions for authors
Topic:
INTERPRETING SERVICES IN THE PROVISION OF PASTORAL CARE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
The article should reflect the findings mentioned below:
Introduction: Healthcare organisations acknowledge the changes of traditional pastoral services for the need of multi-faith communities. Health institutions across Australia, USA or UK, are serving an increasingly diverse patient population. In the provision of holistic care for patients, language is essential to obtain access to basic services. Requirements for interpreter services to overcome the communication gap, and ensure patient’s right to equality of access to healthcare, have become a matter of necessity, globally.
Methods: The focus of the project is to gather information about spiritual needs of the patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) and effective mechanisms in the delivery of pastoral care with the help of interpreting services. Data collection for the systematic literature review included library databases, grey literature and targeted internet searches.
Results: There are a sparse number of studies available that address the role of interpreters between pastoral care staff and patients with LEP.
Conclusion: Both multifaceted spiritual expectations of patients and government guidelines demand the provision of additional resources for equity of the services. Future investigations require frameworks for adequate pastoral care services, including communication barriers of patients with limited English
Material provided at the end of the instructions could be and should be partially incorporated in the article.
Please note that CrossCheck™ software will be used to screen papers for unoriginal material.
All parts of the paper should be double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Brief research reports should be 2500 words, and contain no more than two tables or two figures or a table and a figure. It should contain the following sections: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references.
On the first page the article should be summarized in an abstract of not more than 150 words. Please list up to five key words or short phrases that indicate the major focus of the manuscript for indexing purposes. Avoid abbreviations, diagrams, and reference to the text in the abstract.
References.
References, citations, and general style of manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the APA Publication Manual,6th ed. Cite in the text by author and date (Smith, 1983) and include an alphabetical list at the end of the article. Examples:
Journal: Tsai, M., & Wagner, N. N. (1978). Therapy groups for women sexually molested as children. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 7(6), 417–427.
Book: Millman, M. (1980). Such a pretty face. NY: W. W. Norton.
Contribution to a Book: Hartley, J. T., & Walsh, D. A. (1980). Contemporary issues in adult development of learning. In L. W. Poon (ed.), Ageing in the 1980s (pp. 239–252).Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Illustrations. Illustrations submitted (line drawings, halftones, photos, photomicrographs, etc.) should be clean originals or digital files. Digital files are recommended for highest quality reproduction and should follow these guidelines:
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Materials to be considered and reflected in the article
Results
While much have been written on importance of holistic approach and spiritual care in health settings, perspectives on the subject have evolved with increasing ethnographic diversity of the patients and their religious needs. Many authors see spiritual care providers as a key resource to overcome limitations of healthcare staff to address religious demands of patients (McSherry and Jamieson, 2011; Daaleman, 2012).
Preliminary review indicates that most of the literature discusses the chaplaincy role, scope of practice and their impact on patient’s satisfaction. Although, most of the literature highlights the importance of further studies related to spiritual support of linguistically and culturally diverse patients (Timmins et al, 2015; Pesut et al, 2012), only few studies discusses organisational aspects of the subject. Other part of the studies, describes role of medical interpreter in the healthcare settings and models of interpreting services.
Weldon et al (2014) emphasizes in her article the evidence-based approach to expand the organisational work around responding to patients’ language needs and cultural sensitivity. The author describes examples of working mechanisms and protocols for providing care for non-English-speaking paediatric patients in Mercy Hospitals in Iowa and Mexico. Corporate policy and developed Communication Assessment Plan (CAP) help health care personnel choose the appropriate interpreting resources for patients (Weldon et al, 2014).
Patricia Cole (2002) supports the similar statement and discusses aspects of practice in the clinic for Somalian patients in Minneapolis. The clinic uses services of well-trained interpreters and bilingual staff members with a working knowledge of the Somalian people’s history and religious beliefs. Although, it also mentioned that professional interpreters usually avoid explaining cultural and spiritual expectations, and hospital members can remain ignorant of patient’s motives in their responses. At the same time non-professional interpreters, especially from the same small community as a patient, “may modify the questions physicians ask, because of their concerns about privacy, or they may change the answers our patients provide for a variety of well-meaning motivations”. (Cole, 2002)
Sheikh et al (2004) surveyed hospital chaplaincy in England via telephonic interviews for multicultural provision. Although the research was not truly national, it allowed collection of data from wide demographic range. The authors suggest that in order to meet the spiritual needs of patients from diverse communities, people with different skills and backgrounds should be considered as a part of spiritual care providers. Later, Sheikh, Gatrad & Dhami (2008) provided practical suggestions to improve the communication with people from minority ethnic groups and responding to the language needs of patients with poor English (Sheikh, Gatrad & Dhami, 2008).
In her book “Medical Interpreting and Cross-Cultural Communication” Angelelli (2004) noted that roles of interpreters expanded. They provide not only communication “service”, but cultural explanations and often behave as advocates of the patients. The author concluded that medical interpreters serve as “gatekeepers” in bridging the gap between healthcare providers and patients. According to Angelelli there are challenges to achieve transparency as interpreter cannot be completely neutral, which have been echoed in the work of Elkington & Talbot (2016). (Angelelli, 2004; Elkington & Talbot, 2016).
Sasson (accessed on 18/08/17) describes in his article the challenges of “traditional” medical interpreters during encounters with patients involving a religious matter. The author advises on the need of understanding the basic lexicon of specific religious terminology, supporting tools, such as bilingual Bible, and possible situation approaches, including end of life and organ transplantation care (Caduceus, 2017).
The number of conceptual and methodological studies available addressing the role of interpreters in bridging the communication gap between pastoral care staff and patients with LEP and their family is sparse.
Discussion and conclusions
Spiritual care is an important part of the healing process for patients and family members. However, lack of evidence-based research about effective deliverance of pastoral care, particularly to patient with limited proficiency of English, restricts the development of adequate interventions and guidelines.
Despite the move towards the ways of addressing and assessment of patient’s spiritual needs by staff, common obstacles and differences should be considered during development of standard procedure protocols for referring patients to pastoral care (McSherry and Jamieson, 2011; Winter-Pfändler, 2011; Weldon et al, 2014).
Hospital pastoral services unit usually manage resources and relationships between various religions and works as a liaison. Several practical challenges have been identified to hire representatives from cultural communities, such as budget and training (Pesut et al, 2012). In a multicultural society, further research is required to evaluate and develop modern multi-faith pastoral models with efficient mechanism to guarantee freedom of religion and equal access to spiritual services.
Some authors express concerns related to the guidelines of hospital chaplaincy’s operations within diverse community (Sheikh, Gatrad & Dhami, 2008). Multifaceted spiritual expectations of patients and government guidelines demand the provision and additional resources for equity of the services. Thus, future investigations require among frameworks and various solutions for adequate pastoral care services, including communication barriers of patients with poor English.
In healthcare, research as well as practice has formed traditional interpreting roles to produce more effective communication. Due to the formality and specificity of religious ceremonies, it may be challenging even for professional interpreters. Regardless of individual beliefs and religious affiliation, there is a necessity of knowledge and understanding to interpret in the context of spiritual support sessions, religious sacraments, prayer, end of life matters, and religious celebrations (Caduceus, 2017; Angelelli, 2004; Elkington & Talbot, 2016). While the government guides the healthcare setting regarding the provision of cultural interpreters, awareness of linguistic discordance should be promoted in interpreting training institutions to prepare students for working in various circumstances.
However, the above recommendations may be associated with additional cost implications. Giving the importance of providing health care in effective manner, financial implications cannot be ignored and future credible research-based study is required in this area.
Finally, ethical aspects and confidentiality are important. Standards to facilitate communication, promotion of accurate interpreting, establishing procedures to overcome barriers to understanding, and promote ethical behaviour have been identified as critical aspects that need to be considered in a multicultural society (Angelelli, 2004; Elkington & Talbot, 2016).
Considering the complexity of medical interpreting work, it is clear that preparation is necessary before working in the setting that provides not only medical services, but spiritual support as well. They may include both formal education and on-going training to gain the knowledge needed for a specific encounter (Sasson, 2017; Angelelli, 2004; Elkington & Talbot, 2016)
