• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Experts offer tips to help tighten your translation policy

Nurse Leader Weekly, May 21, 2003

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!

Communicating effectively with patients is crucial, especially when their first language is not English. A quick call to your hospital's telephone translator service can tell you which languages you needed translators for during the past year, suggests Diana Free, RN, BSN, LHRM, risk management director for Gwinnett Health System, Lawrenceville, GA.

This could help you determine whether to hire a local interpreter who could come onsite when needed.

Consider this: Telephone translation services charge anywhere from $1.50 to $4 per minute (about $90-$240 per hour), while onsite translators charge about $90 an hour, plus mileage and related travel expenses.

Consult these additional suggestions when using interpreters:

• When obtaining informed consent via an interpreter, ask the patient to repeat to you, through the interpreter, all essential items about the procedure and consent. This helps guarantee that no information is lost due to misunderstanding or interpreter error.
• Work with community groups and local colleges to recruit volunteer translators and to establish ways to assess their competency in medical translation.
• Require staff to use professional interpreters for specific purposes. Educate staff about the importance of using a professional interpreter, even if someone who can speak Spanish (e.g., a nonclinical hospital employee or a patient's family member) is readily available. Incorporate this message into training for all new employees.
• Find out whether an interpreter is trained to take medical histories. If the interpreter has not had any special clinical training, make sure a clinician is available to answer the interpreter's questions.
• Ask the patient or interpreter whether the physician and staff should know of any cultural or personal beliefs relevant to the procedure, says Maria-Paz Avery, PhD, a Newton, MA-based medical sociologist.

Adapted from: Briefings on Liability Risk Reduction, www.hcmarketplace.com/Prod.cfm?id=1264&S=ENMW.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive