‘Nurses need to understand beliefs and religious practices’

FOUR out of five nursing staff believe they are inadequately trained for dealing with the health care needs of asylum-seekers.

Research by clinical nurse specialist PJ Boyle has identified major weaknesses in the provision of appropriate health services to non-nationals.

“In general, nurses feel they are not prepared to deal with the issue as they do not have adequate training on the issue of transcultural nursing,” Mr Boyle said.

Speaking at the National Paediatric Nursing Conference in Tallaght yesterday, Mr Boyle said the absence of such training had an obvious impact on the outcome of health treatment for asylum-seekers.

Mr Boyle, an Eastern

Regional Health Authority nurse dealing with asylum seekers, claimed this created difficulties for the treatment of the children of foreign nationals.

Research also revealed that half of all nurses in acute hospitals did not know how to get access to interpretation services.

Mr Boyle said there was an obvious need for a system of approved or regulated interpretation services for hospitals because of the growing immigrant population in Ireland.

The problems associated with a lack of language and communication skills among the immigrant community was exacerbated by their lack of awareness and access to health care services, Mr Boyle said.

He said an optional module on transcultural nursing for trainee nurses at Dublin City University was “more the exception than the rule”.

He called for specialist training for dealing with asylum-seekers healthcare needs to become a fundamental part of general training for all student nurses, as well as the establishment of in-service training for working nurses.

“For instance, nurses need to have a understanding of a person’s beliefs, past experiences, religious practices and health care behaviour in

order to enable them to

access appropriate services,” Mr Boyle said.