I had to stifle my feelings'-Bilingual health professionals translating for family members in a healthcare setting. A qualitative study Background: As an alternative to a professional interpreter, children or relatives often act as so-called 'language brokers' in the healthcare sector. Litterature have demonstrated that the cultural context is significant for the potential outcome for child language brokers. For individuals from a collectivistic family pattern, it becomes natural and is often regarded as respectful, to assist older relatives day and night. Aim: Very little is known about young people providing informal translation services in a Scandinavian context. We therefore aimed to capture the lived experiences of bilingual health professionals, students and postgraduates who have experienced interpreting for family members in a healthcare setting. By interviewing bilingual health professionals, we aimed to obtain two perspectives, the translators and the professionals, in one interview. Results: Analysing the conditions, meanings and reasoning, it became possible for us to understand the young translators' situations and how their life conditions affected their reasons for action in certain ways and in certain conditions. The analysis revealed four main themes: (i) the importance of social relations and cultural conditions; (ii) the hidden burden of consequences for participants' health conditions due to the focus on health-related consequences and emotionally difficult situations experienced by the participants; (iii) participants experienced limitations in language skills as a challenge; and (iv) being 'in between' in the encounter with the professional system. Conclusion: When family members interpret for the family, the family interpreter is at risk of being excluded by the family or being exposed to and involved in highly sensitive dilemmas that may forever impair normal family relations: health professionals should be aware of this and take professional responsibility.
Aim
We aimed to explore how interpreters experienced being part of a special designed health introduction course and to obtain their perspectives on the learning process. The overall aim was to improve health care to patients with language barriers.
Design
With a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we used participant observations as a method for collecting data.
Method
The teaching methods used were case‐based learning, role‐play and active involvement including dialogs, discussions and critical reflections. The interpreters were divided into teams of 10–15 interpreters. Over the duration of 6 weeks, teaching sessions were conducted, with 3 hr/week planned.
Results
The findings emphasize the importance of providing the interpreters with education, supervision and a work environment where they can confidentially share and get competent feedback on their experiences and linguistic skills, in order to ensure patients get the correct information in their native language.
The aim was to examine the impact on interpreters’ health knowledge, attitudes and self-evaluated skills after they participated in a pilot health introduction course at a university hospital in Denmark. The study was conducted as an intervention study using a questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was distributed to interpreters one week before the six-week course started, and again at one week and at three months after course completion. Level of knowledge was calculated based on the number of answers to 18 multiple-choice questions on common health issues, diagnoses and treatments. Of the 100 interpreters who registered for the course, 86 completed the course, and 61 of these participants (70%) completed both the baseline and the one-week questionnaire. The mean knowledge score increased from 48 ( SD 6.9) at baseline to 52 ( SD 3.4; p < 0.001) one week after the course and was 51 ( SD 7.3; p < 0.001) three months after the course ( n = 55). Participants who increased their knowledge score the most were those with the least interpreter experience ( p = 0.001). One week after the course, most participants (83–95%) agreed that the individual lessons had been useful in their subsequent interpreting activities and that they had gained useful information. The health introduction course appeared to be beneficial for interpreters. This study highlights the need for greater focus on education for interpreters working in the healthcare sector.
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