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Table 2 Overview of categories with subcategories analyzed from interviews by healthcare staff working in multilingual emergency healthcare

From: Language interpretation conditions and boundaries in multilingual and multicultural emergency healthcare

Category (No. of statements)

Sub-category (No. of statements)

The use of interpreters is determined by the patient’s health status and access to interpreting service in the organization (424)

Type of emergency care determines the mode of interpreting (338)

The patient’s health status and availability of an interpreter determine the type of interpreter used in the workplace (44)

Healthcare staff in somatic and psychiatric emergency care prefer professional interpreters (24)

Healthcare staff in the ambulance prefer family members on the spot (18)

Utilization of interpreting services is driven by informal or formal guidelines and different national laws (412)

Informal and formal guidelines and limited knowledge of existing laws govern utilization of interpreting services in the workplaces

Interpreters are used in situations with communication deficiencies in somatic and psychiatric emergency care (136)

Professional interpreters are not used in ambulance care or in urgent situations (16)

Interpreters are not used if body language can be used for communication (12)

The use of a professional interpreter at the workplace depends on the interpreter’s linguistic skills, personal qualities, professional approach, and organizational aspects (290)

The professional interpreter’s linguistic competence, positive personal qualities, and professional approach facilitates work when communication is deficient (206)

Professional interpreter perceived as positive and a tool facilitating communication (24)

Professional interpreter perceived positively or negatively when organizational aspects (time, environment and technical equipment, and interpreter languages) of the use of interpreter work or not (18)

Recommendations to improve the use of interpreting services in emergency care (67)

Developing the procedure for prompt access to professional interpreters in the workplace (58)

Education of health professionals in using a professional interpreter, and the professional interpreter’s role in various care situations (9)