Language proficiency of healthcare and social welfare personnel to be strengthened to improve patient safety

The sufficient Finnish or Swedish proficiency of professionals working in the healthcare and social welfare sector forms an essential part of patient safety and service quality. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is currently preparing measures to make it easier to ensure language proficiency, and to support employers in enhancing professionals’ language skills.

Some shortcomings have been observed in the language skills of doctors, registered nurses, practical nurses and care assistants who have moved to Finland from abroad. A lack of language proficiency may cause misunderstandings with patients, errors when recording patient data and, at worst, safety incidents in care. 

"Having sufficient language skills is not just a formal requirement. It is an essential part of patient safety and good care. The purpose is to ensure that professionals working in healthcare  and social welfare have the language skills needed for the job and in the language area and that employers have adequate tools and support to ensure their language proficiency," says Minister of Social Affairs and Health Wille Rydman.

Assessing language proficiency requirements and ways of ensuring them

It is challenging to assess the precise number of people whose language proficiency should be improved.  Each year, approximately 60–80 registered nurses and 40–50 doctors who were trained abroad and who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish apply for professional practice rights. In addition, about 2,500–3,000 people whose first language is other than Finnish or Swedish complete practical nurse training in Finland every year. It is estimated that a total of about 2,600–3,200 people per year would need more extensive language training. What is more, there are already many professionals in working life whose language skills should be reinforced. 

The preparation of measures involves examining the possibility of raising the language proficiency requirement from the current B1 level (YKI 3) at least to the level B2 (YKI 4) and ensuring better that personnel have the language proficiency required for their duties. At the same time, the legislation on healthcare and social welfare professionals and the Act on the Supervision of Healthcare and Social Welfare will be reformed. During the preparatory work, it will also be possible to authorise the Finnish Supervisory Agency to issue further regulations on language proficiency and on the demonstration of language proficiency.

Supporting employers’ responsibility by further developing language training and tools

The main responsibility for ensuring language proficiency rests with employers. To support them, measures will be taken to harmonise practices for language training and language proficiency assessment. The aim is to create a common model for implementing language training, a learning platform, and learning materials and assessment tools for educational institutions and employers. Some of the measures can be implemented during this parliamentary term.

In the longer term, the aim is to develop a language proficiency test for the healthcare and social welfare sector, which would assess specifically the language skills required to work in the sector.

Inquiries:

Taina Mäntyranta, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Medical Affairs, tel. +358 295 163 692 
Jaska Siikavirta, Director +358 295 163 394
Jenni Kangas, Senior Specialist, tel. +358 29 5163499
Nuutti Hyttinen, Special Adviser to the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 295 163 07

Email addresses are in the format [email protected].