Cross-cultural communication in a women’s health service: a mixed-methods evaluation

Abstract Background Effective communication is critical to safety and quality in healthcare. Women with limited English proficiency face cultural and linguistic barriers to quality communication in anglophone settings, perpetuating poor health outcomes and health inequity. Women’s perspectives are essential to inform future evidence-based strategies. This study aimed to evaluate and explore women’s experiences of cross-cultural communication within a women’s health service. Methods Women receiving maternity or gynaecology care at a women’s health service in Western Australia were eligible to participate if they had accessed interpretation support in Arabic, Burmese, Farsi, Mandarin or Vietnamese. A total 68 women completed a cross-sectional survey; 15 women participated in a semi-structured telephone interview. Quantitative and qualitative data underwent descriptive statistical and multilingual reflexive thematic analyses respectively. Results Participants reported diverse language preferences and skills, most frequently identifying Mandarin, Arabic and Vietnamese as their preferred language. At their most recent visit, most recalled having an in-person interpreter present speaking their preferred language. However, less than half of participants were provided with written health information resources in their preferred language. Three themes, the role of interpretation , navigating the health service with uncertainty , and a foundation of trust , explore facets of women’s experiences, linked by an overarching theme, Health is too important not to understand . Conclusions This study highlights the need for proactive service-wide approaches to cross-cultural communication encompassing but not exclusive to, clinical encounters, offering insight into key systemic gaps. Improved integration of interpretation services, language-concordant information resources and language-concordant support for service navigation are recommended. Plain language abstract Effective communication is critical for safety and quality in healthcare. Barriers to cross-cultural communication perpetuate health inequities. This study found that participants experienced inconsistent access to and quality of professional interpretation, provision of language-concordant health information resources was inadequate, and language support was limited to clinical interactions, impeding service navigation. Proactive strategies are recommended to improve service-wide cross-cultural communication not only in clinical encounters, but in women’s broader interactions with health services.