I am currently a nursing student but have been working as a lab rat (blood draws, EKGs) for a a year and a half now. i work in a clinic which sees a large immigrant population and interpreters are used for a good number of the patients i see. i have access to the charts of all the patients that come into the lab as i need to check people in (EPIC) and look for lab orders and sometimes I need to check provider's notes/encounters/old labs/etc.
On occasion an interpreter will come to the lab and ask if a specific patient has checked in yet/is in the lab. i have always refused to tell them but my coworkers (who have worked there for decades) have no problem telling the interpreters if the patient they are meeting has an appointment and whether or not they have arrived. i figure that it is the interpreter's job to get this information from their dispatch and wait for their patient to arrive and, without specific instructions from their patient, no access to their appointment info from me will be forthcoming. my coworkers have not corrected me, so i am thinking my actions are correct, but i am wondering if i am inconveniencing the interpreters unnecessarily. what say you learned professionals?
