Characteristics of Good Medical Interpreters

Medical interpretation is an important subset of theto go help the patient as soon as possible. In these
field of interpretation that requires the interpreter tosituations the interpreter should make an effort to
possess certain important characteristics. A goodgo to this emergency appointment, for the sake of
medical interpreter must have a strong medicalmaintaining continuity with this patient. In case the
vocabulary. The interpreter must know how tointerpreter cannot make this emergency appointment
translate basic medical terms such as asthma andthe interpreter should follow up the next day to find
x-ray and also advanced, highly specialized terms suchout the nature of the emergency.
as nuclear stress test and sickle cell anemia.A medical interpreter must show courtesy and
One important characteristic is having utmost respectrespect toward all medical staff, ranging from
for the privacy of the patient. Any communicationdoctors all the way to appointment schedulers. An
that takes place between a doctor and a patient isinterpreter should never giver their own opinion on a
confidential. If there is an interpreter present tomatter and should never disagree with a doctor or a
overcome the language barrier between doctor andnurse. If an interpreter needs to speak to a staff
patient all communications that take place are stillperson and that person is busy then the interpreter
confidential. The interpreter cannot disclose anyneeds to wait until that person is finished. Medical
information about the patient to anyone.offices are sometimes stressful work environments;
One aspect of medical interpretation that can bea good medical interpreter will show patience and
difficult to handle is dealing with emergency situations.understanding and not interrupt the work of medical
Sometimes a patient that an interpreter works withstaff.
on a regular basis will have an emergencyAlex Uvarov
appointment and that interpreter will be called uponA&A Languages, LLC.