
“Life is hard enough for people. I believe in respecting the dignity of all people and doing what you can to help everyone communicate.”
By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
For Kathleen Head, growing up in a household with deaf siblings had a profound impact on her relationship with language in all its forms.
Her first language, in fact, was American Sign Language, before she became fluent in English and Spanish.
The longtime hematology/oncology nurse at Riley Hospital for Children uses all of those languages to communicate with patients and families to ensure they have equitable access to important medical information.
That passion has morphed into multiple roles at Riley, including as a Spanish educator for Spanish-speaking hem/onc patients and families on 5 West and a leadership role on a hospital-wide language access committee that she spearheaded.

“I love the education role, and I love hem/onc and very much love using my Spanish to connect with families who prefer Spanish,” she said. “I love being able to stay partly at the bedside and partly in education.”
Her focus on improving patient experience and safety through equitable language initiatives landed her a role on Riley’s quality and safety team last summer, and recently she was nominated for a national DAISY award recognizing extraordinary nurses in patient safety.
“Kathleen exemplifies the very definition of an extraordinary nurse by the way she prioritizes and improves the safety and well-being of her patients, their family members and her fellow team members,” wrote Anne McCallister, director of quality and safety at Riley, in nominating Head.
“In her role as the Spanish educator for the inpatient cancer center, Kathleen quickly identified the need for additional language resources and advocacy for non-English-speaking families,” she added.
She took the initiative to galvanize support among hospital leadership and across teams to create the Riley Hospital Language Access Committee.
“What began as an effort to improve care and communication on one unit is now a hospital-wide quality initiative focused on improving language equity,” McCallister said. “This has created a cultural shift across the hospital, making Riley safer for all families.”

While Head was not one of the two national winners, she said the nomination validates the work she and a large group of people are doing at Riley to improve the patient and family experience, regardless of the language they prefer.
“I developed the Spanish educator role (in 2022) because that was in my skill set, but it didn’t take long to see that this kind of coordination is necessary for all our families who prefer a language other than English,” Head said. “I realized there was a much greater need across the hospital for language access development.”
The language access committee has evolved into a multidisciplinary, hospital-wide initiative to improve communication as a way to improve care.
Part of the work committee members do is making sure all team members are aware of the language support services available, whether that be in-person interpreters, electronic interpreting via MARTTI or document translating support, key in communicating discharge instructions.
Data collected by McAllister and her team indicate that Head’s efforts have helped reduce patient harm and readmission by improving hospital communication between patients and clinicians, ensuring families receive safer, high-quality discharge instructions in their preferred language.
Echoing McAllister’s comments, Megan Isley, Riley’s chief nursing officer, said Head “epitomizes the very essence of an extraordinary nurse dedicated to patient safety,” not only in her role as a bedside nurse but also as the Spanish educator for the cancer center.
“Kathleen’s unwavering commitment to the safety of her patients, their families and her fellow team members is truly commendable.”
Her “innovative approach and relentless commitment” have resulted in significant improvements to patient care and communication, Isley said.
Head, a mother of two, said that from a young age, she saw and understood how unequal access to language support can lead to different lived experiences.
Bridging the communication gap is key to better outcomes, she believes.
“Life is hard enough for people. I believe in respecting the dignity of all people and doing what you can to help everyone communicate. That is always on my heart.”
Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org