Thanks to a specialized curriculum developed by a California non-profit, hospital interpreters are better equipped to help physicians clearly communicate end-of-life issues with patients that don’t speak English, according to STAT.
Navigating cultural and linguistic differences in healthcare is already fraught with misinterpretations. Adding palliative care to that conversation prompts a host of new pitfalls in which patients could miss important information.
A curriculum developed by the California Health Care Foundation, a non-profit aimed at improving access to care for low-income individuals, offers special training for interpreters designed to eliminate miscommunication during difficult end-of-life discussions. As a conduit between the physician and the patient, interpreters must be able to recognize cultural differences, interpret body language and provide nuanced translations to minimize confusion. Words like “hospice,” for example, carry an overtly negative connotation for people from Mexico, which could limit access to important end-of-life services.
"It’s not a matter of finding an equivalent word, because there is none," Viviana Marquez, supervisor of the department of language and cultural services at Riverside University Health System Medical Center, told STAT. "You have to get into a deeper explanation."
Other cultural misunderstandings can occur, too, according to STAT. For instance, in some parts of the world health decisions are made as a family unit, according to the article, so the idea of a healthcare proxy may be confusing. Or, bad news may be misunderstood because medical staff speaks too quickly or avoids key details that the patient needs to understand. The California Health Care Foundation course focuses on how to minimize these confusions, but also how interpreters can avoid "vicarious trauma," or the toll that relaying such bad news day-in and day-out can take on stress levels.
For the last several years, hospitals have faced a growing demand for medical interpreters, particularly those with clinical experience. Last year, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) urged the federal government to provide funding for medical interpreters.
- read the STAT article