CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF CODE-SWITCHING IN CLINICAL DUTIES: A QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH OF THE PERSPECTIVE OF STUDENT NURSES

This study was conducted over the period of August 2025 to May 2026. Effective communication is essential in multilingual healthcare environments, where student nurses frequently practice code-switching to improve patient understanding and interaction. In the Philippine clinical setting, forms such as Taglish (Tagalog and English) and Kapampagalog (Kapampangan and Tagalog) are commonly used; however, the experiences of student nurses regarding its challenges and benefits remain underexplored. This study explored the use of code-switching among Level II and Level IV student nurses during clinical duties at a Tertiary Catholic Archdiocesan University in San Fernando, Pampanga. Guided by a qualitative descriptive design, purposive sampling was utilized, and data were gathered through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with eleven participants, consistent with Hennink and Kaiser’s (2022) principle of data saturation. Reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke (2024) was employed to analyze the data. Findings revealed five major themes: code-switching practices in clinical communication, code-switching across clinical situations, challenges in using code-switching, benefits and perceptions of code-switching, and perceived effectiveness and recommendations for practice. Results showed that nursing students use code-switching to adapt to patients’ preferred language, improve comprehension, establish rapport, and facilitate health education. However, challenges such as limited fluency in local dialects, difficulty translating medical terminology, and occasional communication barriers were also identified. Overall, the study concluded that code-switching is an effective patient-centered communication strategy that enhances understanding, trust, and quality of care in multilingual clinical environments while supporting culturally responsive nursing practice and education.