Fostering Understanding Among Diverse Populations

As one of Florida’s largest safety net health systems, we serve people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religious affiliations and cultures. Treating such diverse populations and ensuring that our patients understand diagnoses, procedures and treatment often requires the assistance of specially trained staff. We are lucky to have the Diversity and Language Services Department led by Yemisi Oloruntola-Coates.

“Diversity is a broad term and involves much more than just religion, culture and race,” Yemisi says. “There will always be differences between individuals and groups of people, but the goal of our department is to help bridge communication and foster understanding.”

One way that Yemisi and her team break down diversity barriers is through department and system-wide training—much of which includes education dealing with bias or language in the workplace, employee relationships, religion and culture and how it affects our health, and how diverse patient populations perceive their care. “Diversity training serves as a good reminder that we are caring for people who may think and see things differently, but we also work with people who do not always share the same ideologies, education levels and certainly not the same experiences,” Yemisi says. “So, we must all work together to find things in common and ways to understand one another. The more we truly get to know one another, the more we see past our differences and we often find we have many similarities. This helps us build better bonds, enhances teamwork and sets us up to reach our goal of caring for our patients and our community.”

Additionally, the Diversity and Language Services Department participates in community events. “We create and participate in programs to reach the various populations we serve,” Yemisi says. “Tailoring the message, engaging community leaders and providing health screenings enables us to more effectively share health and wellness information with our community.”

Yemisi also oversees 10 medical interpreters, which is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of the Diversity Department. When English is not a patient’s primary language, or if they do not speak English at all, medical interpreters provide all of the necessary information in ways our patients can understand. They also put our patients at ease.

“When a patient can speak in his or her language, and can speak to someone who understands their culture, it does provide them great comfort,” says Michel Lanoix, a medical interpreter who speaks Haitian/Creole and French. “Even if a patient is in pain, when I come in and talk to them, they smile more.”

Gina Nunez is a Cancer Registrar Analyst in the Cancer Data Center at the Regional Cancer Center. Because of an experience during her youth, she knew she wanted to become a medical interpreter.

“I remember my mom being mistreated at a hospital because she did not speak the language,” Gina says. “I was 7 years old at the time and I wanted to help, but I couldn’t. It was hard to see my mom so defenseless, so I knew one day I would help other people. Working for Lee Memorial Health System gave me that opportunity—by becoming a medical interpreter.”

Gina completed training through the Diversity and Language Services Department and joined the ranks of nearly 200 Lee Memorial Health System employees who serve as dual-role interpreters coupled with their other health system responsibilities.

“I want our patients to feel comfortable, to know that they are respected, and that they are being treated as a person, not a diagnosis,” Gina says. “As a Spanish-speaking interpreter, I am able to assist our social workers, nurse navigators, and our nurses, physicians and staff at the clinic. I always want our patients to feel satisfied, comforted and calm about their medical care.”

This is only some of the important work our Diversity and Language Services Department does to help and serve our patients, community and organization. Diversity is an advantage, and with the help of Yemisi and her team, we can continue to strengthen the bridges of understanding. To learn more about diversity, visit the Diversity and Language Services page on IntraLee or for a direct link, click here.

Thank you all for being caring people, caring for people…all people.

 

Every week we will feature an act of kindness, “honey,” committed by an Lee Memorial Health System employee, physician or volunteer. If you have a story to share, please email it to LeeBee@LeeMemorial.org.