Medical Interpreters
I really enjoy it when our hospital library is asked to do some non-clinical research. It is unusual, and usualy challenging. A few months ago, I was asked to determine the language needs of the population in the hospital’s catchment area (using census data). It was a fun and interesting assignment that was completed successfully(those who asked for it were happy with the methodology and results)- but since then, I’ve sort of had language and translation needs for hospitals in the back of my mind.
Librarians who don’t work in clinical setting certainly understand the need of libraries to overcome language and cultural barriers, but nowhere is this more essential than in a clinical setting. Below is a story found in my aggregator today in which a hospital administrator talks about having sent bi-lingual employees as interpreters through cultural competance training. My understanding, though, is that a good intepreter for a clinical setting is pretty hard to find. In addition to the linguistic skills required, the interpreter should also have an extensive clinical vocabulary in both languages.
Setting aside translation needs in a clinical setting, what does your medical library do to make resources available to non-english speaking (or newly-english speaking) consumer health information seekers? This is something our library doesn’t do enough of yet, and I’d be glad to hear any suggestions.
Also interesting at CGH: It looks like we’re going to work with some students from Syracuse University on exploring the use of video conferencing equipment to provide American Sign Language translation services. I love the idea.
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