Doctors, Patients, and Interpreters’ Views on the Co-Construction of Empathic Communication in Interpreter-Mediated Consultations: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Video Stimulated Recall Interviews

Abstract

Doctors and patients rely on verbal and nonverbal resources to co-construct clinical empathy. In language-discordant consultations, interpreters’ communicative actions might compromise this process. We aim to explore doctors, patients, and professional interpreters’ perspectives on their own and others’ actions during their empathic interaction in interpreter-mediated consultations (IMCs). We analyzed 20 video stimulated recall interviews with doctors, patients, and interpreters using qualitative content analysis. Doctors and patients found ways to connect with each other on the level of empathic communication (EC) that is not limited by interpreters’ alterations or disengaged demeanor. Some aspects of doctors and interpreters’ professional practices might jeopardize the co-construction of EC in IMCs. The co-construction of EC in IMCs is not only subject to participants’ communicative (inter)actions, but also to organizational and subjective factors. These results provide evidence of the transactional process between the behavioral, cognitive, and affective components of clinical empathy in the context of IMCs.

Teaching students to interpret (with) empathy during emotional interactions involving children

“…Although the original German term has since fallen out of use, "empathy," as a concept, continues to be studied from different perspectives and in different contexts. It has been explored in clinical psychology and in clinical encounters (Riess et al, 2012), both for its importance in patient-provider interactions (see Riess et al, 2012;Boissy et al, 2016) and in interpreter-mediated scenarios (Krystallidou et al, 2018;Theys et al, 2023;Theys et al, 2022;Theys et al, 2021;Theys et al, 2020;Merlini & Gatti, 2015). There are various definitions of empathy in the literature, all of which suggest some form of feeling for another's pain and suffering (see Decety & Ickes, 2009).…”

The co-construction of empathic communication in interpreter-mediated medical consultations: A qualitative analysis of interaction

“…In sum, these findings suggest that interpreters adapted their interpreting strategies to the doctor's lack of familiarity with their practices to avoid causing misunderstandings about the interpreter's level of professionalism during EC in IMCs. Future research should explore this hypothesis by analyzing the interpreters' accounts of the observed events (Theys et al, 2022).…”

“…Interpreters might favor the doctor's expressions because doctors are often seen as the most powerful participant in the consultation (Hsieh, 2016). Future research should try to identify which factors influence interpreters' ways of rendering doctors' ERs and patients' EOs (Theys et al, 2022).…”

“…This became apparent when some patients in this study interrupted the interpreter before the translation of the doctor's ER (e.g., see Appendix C -Box 12). Future research should explore why interpreters altered certain types of EOs and ERs more than others (Theys et al, 2022).…”

“…The Empathic Communication Coding System only allows for the analysis of doctors and patients' experiences as manifested in their observed verbal behavior, which is subject to the analyst's interpretation. Future research should explore participants' actual lived experiences during EC by means of video-stimulated recall interviews with the participants (Paskins et al, 2014;Theys et al, 2022).…”