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Microlecture 014: Should We Think of the Interpreter as an Invisible Person?

February 10, 2016 by Anastasia Divnich

“The best thing to do from a medical providers perspective to help the MI is to act as if the MI is invisible” says Maria Reira. Ms. Reira is an expert medical interpreter (MI) who interprets in  Spanish, Catalan and German.

Should we behave like the MI is an invisible person,  ‘body-less’ voice if you will? This is to say that even if a MI is there in person, treat them like they are a telephone interpreter. Well, I am not sure. The MI is incredibly helpful in a clinical encounter and I will lose a lot of valuable data if I reduced their role to a mere voice. If I have an MI in my clinical encounter, I am going to look to her/him to interpret the verbal and non-verbal aspects of patient communication. Do you agree? What would you recommend?

VJ Periyakoil, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine.

Tweet to us: @palliator

Microlectures information delivery,  non-verbal communication,  practical tips

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Get skills: Cross Cultural Medicine

new As medicine becomes more complex and specialized by the minute, the communication gulf between doctors and their patients is becoming progressively insurmountable. Become skilled in providing culturally effective care:
  • Download step by step guide to working with medical interpreters.
  • Watch the microlecture series on Cross Cultural Medicine
 

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