Réseau Santé offers a number of resources to health care facilities and people working in the health field to better serve their patients in French. Health care professionals can also add their name to a directory of French-speaking health care providers, take part in networking opportunities and receive information about professional development training and presentations offered by our partners.
Bonjour/Hello tools
The Bonjour-Hello tools help health care professionals promote the fact that they offer services in French to their patients/clients. Various tools bearing the Bonjour-Hello logo are available free of charge, including pins, posters, window decals, desktop signs and small stickers.
Nova Scotia Directory of French-speaking Health Professionals
This provincial directory of more than 350 health care professionals that can provide services in French is used by members of the community to find practitioners in over 35 different fields. Health care professionals in Nova Scotia can sign up for the directory for free by completing the sign-up form.
English-French Phrase Book for Health Professionals
This phrase book was developed to help health care professionals in Nova Scotia provide their services in French. It features useful phrases and terms for health care settings in English, French and Acadian French and covers various functions and areas of health care, including assessments, tests and procedures, medications, paramedic care, providing care to children, mental health, social services, etc. The phrase book can be ordered free of charge by health care professionals in Nova Scotia.
Anki Medical Terminology Flashcards
Download the Anki flashcard deck to learn hundreds of medical terms and phrases in French quickly and easily with the Anki app on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Refer to the Anki user manual or watch this video for more information on how to install and use Anki on your computer or mobile device. The flashcard deck is available in two versions: English-to-French and French-to-English.
Patient Safety, Language and Active Offer Training
This workshop offered by Réseau Santé helps health care professionals understand the importance of providing health in the patient’s language, implications for patient safety and how to proactively offer services in French. The workshop is offered as self-directed online training and in person or by videoconference by trainers.
Websites and apps for learning French online
These websites and mobile apps will allow you to learn useful phrases and vocabulary to provide health care services in French:
• French as a Second Language for Health Care Sector Staff (Université Sainte-Anne)
• The Medi-Lexico apps are a series of five mobile apps, available for Android and iOS devices, which provide medical terminology in French and in English in five health care fields (nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, dental care, radiology and respiratory therapy).
• The Med Interpret app is a quick and simple tool for finding French equivalents of medical terms and phrases commonly used in a medical context on your smartphone. The app assists physicians, nurses, technicians, physiotherapists and other health care professionals in communicating with their French-speaking patients.
• The LexiGo app provides quick access to useful health care terms in French and English, which can be accessed without an internet connection on a smartphone or tablet (it is available for iPhone/iPad on the Apple App Store and on the Google Play Store for Android devices).
Publications for improving French-language services
Institutions and health care facilities can refer to the following publications that touch on various aspects of health care services in French to inform their planning processes:
• Improving Access to Health Services in French for Manitoba and Prince Edward Island Seniors
• Impact of language barriers on access to healthcare for official language minority Francophones in Canada
• Framework for Recruitment & Retention of Bilingual Human Resources in the Health Sector
• A Guide for Planning and Providing Francophone Long-term Care Services
• Access to health and interpreter-companion services: The experience of sparsely populated Francophone minority communities in Canada
• The Impact of Language Barriers on Patient Safety and Quality of Care
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Newsletter for Health Care Professionals
Complete the sign-up form below to subscribe to Réseau Santé’s bilingual French in Health Nova Scotia newsletter for health care professionals, support staff and managers who are interested in learning French, improving their French or adopting practices to better serve their Acadian and francophone patients. The newsletter is created in partnership with Nova Scotia Health and the IWK Health Centre.
