2023-05-04 12:20:47
Each year, more than 700 people from Haut-Valais are hospitalized in Sion. To allow medical follow-up in their language, the Sion hospital has hired bilingual nurses since 2013. He draws a positive balance sheet this Thursday.
The first bilingual French-German nursing assistant joined the Valais Hospital in 2013. Today, there are five of them and work in pairs seven days a week.
“Each one assists on average ten to fifteen patients per day”, indicates to Keystone-ATS Francesca Genini-Ongaro, in charge of communication at the Valais Hospital. These are hospitalized or outpatients, upper Valais, German-speaking residents or tourists.
Referees
The role of assistant nurses is to facilitate communication between the patient, his relatives and all hospital staff such as doctors, physiotherapists, dieticians or hotel staff. “They are reassuring and reference people to whom the patient can turn”, specifies Francesca Genini-Ongaro.
This bilingual support also slows down the departure of certain German-speakers to hospitals in German-speaking Switzerland. “For the moment, there are no plans to hire additional staff because overall, the five bilingual nurses manage to manage the demand”, assures the communication officer.
Be followed in your language
A survey on bilingualism carried out at the end of 2021 by the Valais districts of Sierre and Loèche showed that respondents want more bilingualism in health, training and tourism. In detail, 84% of people questioned indicated that they wanted to be treated and medically monitored in their language.
“This is not a surprise, but it constitutes a challenge for the Valais Hospital which is already working on the problem and might set up linguistic tandems for the staff”, commented then for Keystone-ATS Virginie Borel, director of the Biel Bilingualism Forum, in charge of the investigation.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats
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