Use of Interpreters in Healthcare

eileenm

I am an occupational therapy student. I am doing a research study on the use of interpreters in healthcare. Do any medical professionals have experience of using interpreters with non-english speaking patients? What was your experience of this process?

DrIndy

plenty!

I work in an emergency department.

I don't want to answer on a public forum - but you can PM a few questions if you like.

drzhivago

eileenm wrote: »

I am an occupational therapy student. I am doing a research study on the use of interpreters in healthcare. Do any medical professionals have experience of using interpreters with non-english speaking patients? What was your experience of this process?

As above cant comment on individual cases just observations

Difficult to identify what language is required for these with little or no english

regularly for eastern european languages hospital porters or security do translations

Few translators have medical language awareness and I feel are attempting to understand what I say and then translate same so unsure if patient is getting correct information or not

This is a very difficult area even more so when the presentation is an emergency one and urgent action is required

That said i have found responsiveness by translation companies to be excellent

Traumadoc

Raises interesting issues about medical confidentiallity.

drzhivago

Traumadoc wrote: »

Raises interesting issues about medical confidentiallity.

yes it does though had an interesting experience on one occasion where interpreter called (unusual language at the time) was the person who had assaulted the victim originally.

we knew there was something wrong from both reactions and ended up getting a second interpreter from another unofficial source who managed to get the full story

The problem remains for me I really dont have a clue what is going on with the interactions and there may be a lot of subtleties lost amidst the translations

This issue must have arisen in other countries, wonder how they managed

I know in UK they have a document with around 3 pages of standard questions, where is the pain etc. The cover of the document has flags of the various countries which refer you to a page with the questions in that language

Good idea but a lot of work

DrIndy

The issue is also now the chain of whispers has increased.

Not only are you relying on the patient understanding your specific questions and answering fully, but also the interpreter doing so an conveying it accurately. I take much longer to take a history with an interpreter present for that reason.

My preference is to have a nurse or another doctor interpret initially for this reason before an officialt translator arrives.

AmcD

In general practice the problem is when immigrant/non-national parents come in with their Irish-born children. The children often end up interpreting for their parents at a young age. This can often be inappropriate. For example I had to ask a teenage boy to ask his father did he really want to discuss erectile dysfunction with me via his son? Apparently he didn't mind.

Traumadoc

One of my SHOs is from eastern europe and speaks several eastern european languages - makes life a lot easier.

SomeDose

I work in a city where there is, for example, a significant asian population. Due to the natural demographics of hospital inpatients, many of these will be elderly first-generation immigrants with little or no english so the language barrier is a recurring issue. For me, this usually occurs when taking drug histories / discussing drug therapy and anti-coagulation counselling (two areas where accurate information is pretty much essential). The upside is, of course, that we also have a large proportion of nursing and medical staff who can communicate in the patient's first language. Family members, although obviously not ideal, can be extremely useful but they have their limits. As DrIndy says, you can never be 100% sure of what info an interpreter is communicating, or indeed if the patient has sufficient understanding. I'd imagine UK hospitals are better equipped to deal with such issues since their immigrant populations are longer established than those in Ireland. There also tends to be plenty of extra written information available in a whole range of languages.

Traumadoc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMKWnbs7nx0

eileenm

Thank you all for your posts. There are some interesting ideas there. Has anybody else anything to add?

Dr Galen

like the above posters I've had good and bad experiences with translators. More good than bad.

We set up sheets tho with frequently used questions and answers on them which used to be a great help.

Feel free to drop me a line with any questions