The Relationship Between Language Barrier in Non-Arabic Nurses and Anxiety in Cardiovascular Patients: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Abstract

Patients with cardiac conditions may suffer from anxiety related to prognosis and further rehabilitation. Anxiety could be exacerbated by different factors including miscommunication, which could be attributed to the linguistic barrier, that exists among health care providers. At Saud Al-Babtain Cardiac Center (SBCC), nurses who are non-native Arabic speakers could have difficulty communicating disease-related information at different stages of nursing care. Is it possible to identify the language barrier as a source of anxiety for admitted patients with cardiac diseases? In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, 50 patients were included following the diagnosis of cardiac disease and post-cardiac surgery. A questionnaire that measures anxiety level showed that patients who were handled by Arabic-speaking nurses reported less collective mean for the anxiety domain statements of (20.08) versus those who were handled by Non-Arabic-speaking nurses (28.55, P value = .041). Our finding indicates that anxiety levels increased when there was a language barrier between nurses and patients, which could affect the quality of care delivery at SBCC.