The Importance of Explaining How to Work with Interpreters
by Jimmy Beldon
I want to share a story with you that illustrates the importance of having a pre-appointment discussion with health care providers to make sure they know how to work with interpreters.
In many doctors' offices, a variety of people come in and out of rooms to interact with the patient. In the situation I am going to share, the interpreter did not connect with everyone to make an introduction and explain about how to work with an interpreter.
What happened in this situation is that a nurse came into the room of a Deaf woman. The nurse noticed the interpreter, and proceeded to ask some questions of the patient. The interpreter moved into position just behind the nurse to establish an effective sight line, as is standard practice. The nurse was not comfortable with this proximity and moved away from the interpreter to establish some personal space. The interpreter again moved into a similar position, causing the nurse to move again. This was repeated until the nurse was finally forced into the wall.
All of this took place because the interpreter didn't recognize the need to explain to the nurse how to work effectively with an interpreter. This simple act of politeness would have allowed the nurse to be more comfortable and thereby stay in position without being pinned against the wall.
Imagine the consequences of this omission on the part of the interpreter.
English Translation by Doug Bowen-Bailey
I want to share a story with you that illustrates the importance of having a pre-appointment discussion with health care providers to make sure they know how to work with interpreters.
In many doctors' offices, a variety of people come in and out of rooms to interact with the patient. In the situation I am going to share, the interpreter did not connect with everyone to make an introduction and explain about how to work with an interpreter.
What happened in this situation is that a nurse came into the room of a Deaf woman. The nurse noticed the interpreter, and proceeded to ask some questions of the patient. The interpreter moved into position just behind the nurse to establish an effective sight line, as is standard practice. The nurse was not comfortable with this proximity and moved away from the interpreter to establish some personal space. The interpreter again moved into a similar position, causing the nurse to move again. This was repeated until the nurse was finally forced into the wall.
All of this took place because the interpreter didn't recognize the need to explain to the nurse how to work effectively with an interpreter. This simple act of politeness would have allowed the nurse to be more comfortable and thereby stay in position without being pinned against the wall.
Imagine the consequences of this omission on the part of the interpreter.
English Translation by Doug Bowen-Bailey
3 Comments:
I appreciate the addition of the video with the translation. The video played just great on Safari. As far as the situation goes, as an interpreter, I need to develop the skills to recognize a person's physical discomfort with my presence and make sure I do what I can to ease that. It may be that I call a "time-out" and do the brief explanation Jimmy describes or I may simply stop encroaching on the speaker's space!
OMG- Its obvious that the interpreter was not trained to work in the medical setting (or other settings?) IF the interpreter simply stood outside of the patient's room, the introductions and the "short" explaintion could have alleviated this problem.
Depending on the Deaf person: some are very well educated about the use of an interpreter and are happy to explain it to the medical staff. However, in other cases, I have a 20-seconds speech that goes a like this: "Have you ever worked with an interpreter before?" and no matter what they say, I add: "well (as you already know - if they said yes), speak directly to YOUR patient, not to me. This will be a conversation between the two of you, you'll just hear my voice when they respond. And keep in mind that I will provide full access, meaning that I will sign everything that I hear."
I have always had positive reactions from Deaf and hearing consumers. Anyone else has a tip?
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