When an interpreter arrives at an appointment and interprets, that is the visible part of the process. However, the work of the interpreter starts before the appointment, and ends after the appointment. How can a requester of interpreter services work with an interpreter and ensure the best possible result? How can someone who works with [...]
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided According to CLAS 7: Untrained family, friends, minors, and staff often do not possess the necessary skills to provide meaningful language services. Moreover, given their relationship to the patient, the use of friends, family members, and minors [...]
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided The use of clinical and nonclinical staff who speak a non-English language but who are untrained in medical interpretation can pose potential safety risks (Regenstein et al., in press). Research has shown that when clinicians speak a [...]
Working with an interpreter involves clear, direct communication. The Washington State Health Care Authority Interpreter Services Program has developed this checklist for working with an interpreter. Some items on the checklist: Look and speak directly to the patient, not the interpreter. Please wait for the interpreter you requested before starting the appointment. Always speak in [...]
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Ability to communicate in all registers and at varying levels of formality What is a “register”? The “register” is the variety of the language we use in a particular social setting or for a particular purpose. For example, we speak differently at a doctor’s office, our friends’ living [...]
I was talking with a colleague about Title VI. Interpreters are supposed to uphold Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and I was checking what, exactly, that meant. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial [...]
The Minnesota Department of Health gives these recommendations for working with a healthcare interpreter. As professional interpreters, we often introduce ourselves telling the provider… “and please speak directly to each other. I am simply here to be your voice in the other person’s language, saying exactly what you say.” Often, doctors inadvertently lapse into this [...]
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Providing effective and accurate communication between individuals and providers To be able to accomplish this, memory skills are essential! An interpreter must be able to let the speakers express two or three sentences at a time. Why? Because people need to be able to express a coherent thought [...]
Several of my students are dual-role employees. They have told me that interpreting sneaks up on them, and we have discussed how to work this out. I created this spreadsheet to help them with this challenge, per their request. Well, I did offer to do it… Interpreting log for dual-role employees I suggested that they [...]
I wrote this post in December of 2014. In April 2020, during the COVID crisis, there is a lot of remote interpreting. Only a few months ago, about 80% of the interpreting in the United States was done on-site, face to face. Will we return to face-to-face as a preferred mode of communication? Time will [...]
