Microlecture 001: The Two Sentence Rule
When I interact with patients, I am so eager to tell them everything they need to know about their medical condition, what I am planning to do, what they need to do and so on. While this is a wonderful thing, when I am dealing with patients with limited health literacy and English fluency, I need to work with a medical interpreter (MI) to communicate with the patient. In communicating with the MI, it is important to follow the two sentence rule. Watch the microlecture to find out about more the two sentence rule.
VJ Periyakoil, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine. Tweet to us: @palliator
Microlecture 007: The Low Register Rule
What is “register”?
Take a guess! Do doctors speak in low register or high register?
Should the medical interpreter alter the register during translation to make sure the patient understands? Or, should they pause and ask the doctor to restate the information?
VJ Periyakoil, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine. Tweet to us: @palliator
Microlecture 008: Consecutive Interpretation Rule
Do you know that there are different styles of interpretation? What is simultaneous interpretation? What is consecutive interpretation? Which one is better in a clinical encounter? What are the tradeoffs? Which is the preferred method in a clinical encounter when you are pressed for time?
VJ Periyakoil, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine. Tweet to us: @palliator
Microlecture 013: Ethics Of Selective Interpreting
Medical interpretation ethics behooves the interpreter to adhere to their professional code of conduct at all times. This means that the MI is going to interpret everything said in the clinical encounter with the patient, including any differences of opinion, conflicts or unpleasant interactions that happen during that encounter. The MI is not there as to sensor the conversation or interpret selectively.
VJ Periyakoil, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Tweet to us: @palliator
Microlecture 014: Should We Think of the Interpreter as an Invisible Person?
“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
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