Finding out the health workers's communication abilities and their communication problems with immigrants

In this research, it was aimed to determine health worker's communication skills and communication difficulties with immigrants. The population of the descriptive study consisted of 450 health workers working in the family health centers in Yozgat City Hospital and Yozgat Province (80,1% of the universe). Personel information form and communication skills inventory (CSI) was used as a data collection tool. Legal permits and ethics committee approvals were taken for the implementation for this research. In the analysis of the data, numbers, percentages, minimum and maximum values, average and standard deviations, as well as Kruskall Wallis Analysis, Mann Whitney U test wereused. 56,4% of the health workers participated in the study, 43,3% were in the 26-33 age range, 60,0% were married, 60,0% were at the undergraduate level and 73,6% had been working for 10 years or less. Health workers received an average of 157,02 ± 13,23 points from the total of the LMI. The difference between the mean age and marital status of health workers and the mean score of the BMI was significant (p <0,05). The communication skills of the 26-33 age group and singles were found to be high. Communication skills of associate degree graduates were found low. 49.6% of health care workers have served 50 or more migrants, 75,6% of service providers do not know the medical histories of migrants and 67,3% of them do not know the medical history of migrants. 68.9% of the respondents say that they serve without a translator and 76,0% of them believe that migrants increase their workload. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean score of the health care workers' perception of in-service training and the attitude of migrants to the service (P<0,05). In order to improve the communication skills of health professionals, it is recommended to increase the number of interpreters in order to increase in-service training, to offer the communication course practically, to add lessons to develop different cultures and to communicate more easily with immigrants. Keywords: Communication Skills, Migration, Immigrant, Health, Health Workers.