EDUCATION
Growing Demand for Medical Interpreters Translates Into New Graduate Program
A
s the number of non-English speak- ers seeking healthcare in the United
States continues to grow, so does the need for medical interpreters who can serve as a liaison between patients and their doc- tors. The demand for medical interpreters increased even more this year when new standards went into effect requiring healthcare organizations to provide an in- terpreter to patients who speak limited English. In response to this burgeoning career opportunity, Wake Forest University is of- fering a new MA in Interpreting and Translation Studies with three tracks, in- cluding
the Intercultural Services in
Healthcare option -- the first such special- ization in the United States -- which pre- pares graduates for managerial careers in areas of culture-sensitive healthcare de- livery. Another track, Teaching of Inter- preting, will be the only one in the North-
ern hemisphere educating faculty for
college-level interpreting programs. The deadline for applying for the Fall 2011 is April 15, 2011. While there are many certificate pro-
grams for medical interpreters, the field lacks professional rigor the way legal in- terpreting does, according to Dr. Olgierda Furmanek, associate professor in the De- partment of Romance Languages at Wake Forest, who designed the new curriculum. So far no national guidelines exist regard- ing the proper training of medical inter- preters that would help potential employ- ers but there are several efforts to establish them in the near future. Besides being fluent in a second lan-
guage, medical interpreters must know a great deal of medical terminology, have good memory recall, understand ethics and cultural sensitivities, and be accurate and precise in interpreting and translating
medical information. They also cannot omit or filter information exchanged be- tween a doctor and a patient.
Federal laws have been on the books for years requiring medical institutions to provide interpreters to non-native speak- ers, but there has been little enforcement of the provisions until recently. Now the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 18,000 healthcare or- ganizations and programs in the United States, is establishing new standards ef- fective in January requiring hospitals to provide language interpreting and transla- tion services.
The new provisions are expected to further fuel the demand for medical inter- preters, which were already in short sup- ply. Even before the new standards were introduced, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted jobs for interpreters and transla- tors would grow by 22 percent over the next decade, faster than the average for all other occupations. Meanwhile a nation- wide survey of 4,700 doctors, conducted by the nonprofit Center for Studying Health System Change, found that only 55.8 percent of practices with non-Eng- lish speaking patients provide interpreting services, and 40 percent offer patient-edu- cation materials in languages other than English. Medicaid currently reimburses the medical provider for the services of an interpreter. Depending on the state, a medical interpreter can make $25 to $50 an hour. In the private sector, they can command upwards of $100 an hour. How- ever, it can be even more costly to forego the services of an interpreter, Furmanek said.
barrier between the patient and the medi- cal
it slows everything
“In a hospital, when there is a language professional,
down. Trained medical interpreters bring more efficiency to the overall operation,” Furmanek said. “Without interpreters present, mistakes can happen and they can be costly and tragic.”
Source: Wake Forest University & PRNewswire 46 PROFESSIONAL WOMAN’S MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE CELEBRATING 11 YEARS OF DIVERSITY
WWW.PROFESSIONALWOMANMAG.COM
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