BackgroundJapanese nurses are increasingly required to read published international research in clinical, educational, and research settings. Language barriers are a significant obstacle, and online machine translation (MT) is a tool that can be used to address this issue. We examined the quality of Google Translate® (English to Japanese and Korean to Japanese), which is a representative online MT, using a previously verified evaluation method. We also examined the perceived usability and current use of online MT among Japanese nurses.FindingsRandomly selected nursing abstracts were translated and then evaluated for intelligibility and usability by 28 participants, including assistants and research associates from nursing universities throughout Japan. They answered a questionnaire about their online MT use. From simple comparison of mean scores between two language pairs, translation quality was significantly better, with respect to both intelligibility and usability, for Korean-Japanese than for English-Japanese. Most respondents perceived a language barrier. Online MT had been used by 61% of the respondents and was perceived as not useful enough.ConclusionNursing articles translated from Korean into Japanese by an online MT system could be read at an acceptable level of comprehension, but the same could not be said for English-Japanese translations. Respondents with experience using online MT used it largely to grasp the overall meanings of the original text. Enrichment in technical terms appeared to be the key to better usability. Users will be better able to use MT outputs if they improve their foreign language proficiency as much as possible. Further research is being conducted with a larger sample size and detailed analysis.

Background:The language barrier is a significant obstacle for nurses who are not native English speakers to obtain information from international journals. Freely accessible online machine translation (MT) offers a possible solution to this problem.Aim:To explore how Japanese nursing professionals use online MT and perceive its usability in reading English articles and to discuss what should be considered for better utilisation of online MT lessening the language barrier.Method:In total, 250 randomly selected assistants and research associates at nursing colleges across Japan answered a questionnaire examining the current use of online MT and perceived usability among Japanese nurses, along with the number of articles read in English and the perceived language barrier. The items were rated on Likert scales, and t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test, and Spearman’s correlation were used for analyses.Results:Of the participants, 73.8% had used online MT. More than half of them felt it was usable. The language barrier was strongly felt, and academic degrees and English proficiency level were associated factors. The perceived language barrier was related to the frequency of online MT use. No associated factor was found for the perceived usability of online MT.Conclusion:Language proficiency is an important factor for optimum utilisation of MT. A need for education in the English language, reading scientific papers, and online MT training was indicated. Cooperation with developers and providers of MT for the improvement of their systems is required.

Nurses whose native language is not English may face a language barrier when they read nursing literature published internationally. Freely accessible online machine translation could be one possible solution to reduce their burden. In the present study, English-Japanese translations of nursing article abstracts from the major online machine translation system, Google Translate, were evaluated by 250 nursing faculty members across Japan using a previously verified method for evaluating intelligibility. The abstracts were evaluated according to sections typically classified in structured abstracts: title, background, aim, method, result, discussion, conclusion, and relevance to clinical practice. We also asked for respondents' impressions on the perceived usefulness of the translated abstract as a whole. The results indicated that Google Translate had minimally acceptable quality and identified the word count and the existence of unidentifiable words of source texts as factors contributing to translation quality. Nurses may benefit from Google Translate when reading the professional literature. However, our results suggest that more effort should be made to improve online machine translation performance, and emphasize the importance of providing training and education for nursing professionals to utilize this technology.

Japanese nurses are now being required to use research in clinical practice. As a result, they increasingly need to read nursing research literature written in English. Online machine translation is a convenient tool that may address any existing language barrier. The quality of machine translation has been evaluated using various methods; however, its reliability for nursing literature is unknown. In this study, existing methods for evaluating online machine translation quality were examined for structural accuracy and intelligibility of translations of nursing literature, and the usability of machine translations is discussed. In total, 297 English sentences from nursing study abstracts were evaluated for accuracy and intelligibility; 75 word items were identified as specific terms. Interrater reliability of the evaluation method was measured using two raters. The results showed the strong reliability of the existing evaluation method. Also, a possibly usable online machine translation system being offered in Japan was identified. Specific terms seemed to influence the extent of the intelligibility of the translations. Future studies need to include more samples of the nursing population to examine general perceptions of the usability of online machine translation systems for reading English nursing literature among the Japanese nursing population.

In Japan, nurses are increasingly expected to use English in various settings. English language proficiency is indispensable in almost all aspects of the clinical experience and for career development of Japanese nurses. This article introduces the idea of Japanese nurses learning the English language to enhance their career development and provides succinct survey results about the perceived need for learning English, based on responses from 145 nursing faculty members across Japan. Analyses showed that most faculty members considered English language proficiency important for nursing expertise and career development. Overall, the results indicated that Japanese nurses require continuing English language education. Further study of their need to learn English and ways to implement English education programs is required.