Translating

[utmn]

Hi SDN! A quick question about translating. I know that the consensus on voluntourism/doing things outside your scope of practice is bad, and I agree, so I'm curious whether I should put an experience on my app. I volunteered as a translator for a medical conference abroad, obviously didn't do any patient care. Would it be worth mentioning? I don't want it lumped in the same category as voluntourism. And is that clinical or not? It's certainly not the only time I do translation as I do it at work with some frequency.
Thanks for your help!!

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

So you were translating for patients and providers abroad? Or you were translating at an academic or professional conference abroad? If the later, it isn't clinical but sounds relevant. Just describe it concisely. Sounds like you are a qualified translator so you should definately include it.

 

[utmn]

Thanks for the reply! It was an actual academic conference.

 

[TheVirg]

Sounds like you are a qualified translator so you should definately include it.

I know this shouldn't bother me as much as it does..

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

I know this shouldn't bother me as much as it does..

I never knew partial ellipses existed. Thanks dude.

OP, what type of academic conference was this? biomedical? I think you will need to have a better concise statement about it and your role.

 

[utmn]

Oof, I don't want to say more for fear of revealing myself (I just tried googling it, and, well, let's just say it's easy to find). But safe to say it was a conference about a wide variety of topics in medicine but mostly critical care. I'll work on an appropriate way to explain my role for the application.

 

[Catalystik]

I volunteered as a translator for a medical conference abroad, obviously didn't do any patient care. Would it be worth mentioning?

Making it evident that you have a high-level ability to translate technical jargon and scientific or medical information would be a plus for your application, particularly for med schools with a concentration of folks speaking that language nearby. How many hours did you engage in this activity?

 

[utmn]

It was a 3 day conference but weeklong trip. So I'd say about 25-30 hours.

 

[Catalystik]

Options: You could group it with other short term volunteer gigs, mention it in the same space as your work translating as an aside (especially if one led to the other), or split out all the work translating, taking care not to double count the hours, and add it to the international nonclinical volunteer translating (in the same space), making the paid vs volunteer portions clear in the description. What kind of translating do you do at work?