translators for patients, ever ask for one?

[NNguyenMD]

And if you have didya get laughed at by the med clerk or nurse? B/c hardly any of the patients spoke english anyway?

I just heard that in NY state they've required all hospitals to have patient translators availiable, whether they're volunteers or over the phone. It got me thinking to this one patient I had in peds, a preadolescent girl from Croatia who my resident and I treated for a UTI at an outpatient clinic. The girl spoke perfect english but her parents didn't, and we used her to translate to them! Pretty stupid, but at the time it never crossed my mind that I should have walked out and asked the medclerk to call in a translator.

It may have really slowed things down, and the residents and physician staff would have probably been really pissed at me for holding them up for that, but it would still have been the right thing to do.

What are your translation experiences?

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[nabeya]

pointless to call a translator over the phone when you have one sitting right in the room with you, as in your case. 👎

 

[NNguyenMD]

But it was the kid who was the translator. I'm not really alright with using the kid to translate medical information to her own parents. Maybe I was then, but I'm certainly not now. And if you missed it, she was a pre-adolescent girl, not even 12. So, maybe its a comfort level, but at least for me I'm not using any kids to translate for adult patients anymore.

 

[THP]

Some docs treat outpatient UTIs over the phone without even seeing the patient. With something that simple, as long as you feel confident the child understood, I don't see what the problem is.

 

[ennuiescence]

Ha. This reminds me of an NBME question from Step 1. It involved whether or not it was appropriate to have a bilingual child act as a translator for her father in a minor emergency.

The least practical answer, an "ideal world" solution, was what they considered to be correct: instead of the child, an official hospital interpreter was supposed to be consulted during the examination.

The rationale may have had to do with the child either: a) not understanding medical jargon b) not telling the full truth to her father because of culturally-related idiosyncracies the NBME has typified in Hispanic or other groups. Whether or not this is common, supposedly family members protect their loved ones from potentially damning diagnoses because they might be too overwhelming.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, that was the correct answer and the one we are supposed to regurgitate.

 

[Smurfette]

As a resident, I can tell you that for medicolegal purposes, you need to use a translator. Now in the real world, depending on the situation this is not always possible. And the rule is that a family member translating for a patient's history must be at least 12 yo, which can be frustrating when you meet kids who speak both languages perfectly. However, consenting a patient for ANYTHING requires a translator, even if you personally speak enough spanish to explain the procedure, and the translator's signature or ID# must be documanted on the consent form. Otherwise if there is some adverse outcome and the patient sues, they can win since an official medical interpreter was not used. In my hospital, the policy is that only someone who has passed a translator exam in a given language can do consents without a translator (hence, residents whose native language is spanish cannot consent a spanish speaking pt without a translator unless they personally can pass the translator exam). All hospitals are supposed to have translators for any language available by phone 24-7, and in-house translators if in areas with high numbers of non-english speaking patients.

 

[DrWanahbe]

In my hospital, we are REQUIRED to call our Interpretation Services to get an interpreter for whatever needs we have; we have interpreters for Spanish and Hmong on site, which are the languages we most often need. If they are not available, we take advantage of AT&T's Language Line, which provides over the phone interpretation for just about any language out there. We do not allow family members to serve as interpreters, as this is not a fair position to put them in, additionally, we can be sure the correct message is being translated using an impartial 3rd party. This mainly pertains to the "important" conversations that need to take place, such as when we need to get consent for a procedure or have a family meeting to discuss a patient's care.

 

[ericdamiansean]

In the UK, there is a system set-up and run by the medical students which provide translation services. I think that's pretty useful

 

[DOtobe]

Our outpatient clinic has a lot of Somalian patients, who speak varying degrees of English. Usually if the appointment is made ahead of time, the clinic arranges for an interpreter to be there in person. But sometimes there are sudden appointments or walk-ins, and then we have to use the interpreter over the phone, which is very difficult, just due to difficulty in all of us hearing each other over the speakerphone. I've used a Somalian teenager (she was 17) as the interpreter to her mother (who was the patient), and it was difficult, because some of the medical words I was saying she didn't understand, so she wasn't able to interpret them.

 

[Doc Ivy]

How about this one the word cervical pronounced

ser-VYE-kal instead of SER-vi-kal like all normal human beings would say it

drives me up the wall