Translating at Work

[nursingmeow]

Hi,

I am a new grad at a hospital where there are a lot of Spanish speakers. I am fluent in Spanish and I am always translating for my patients or other nurses/doctors. I know I should be careful with translating but I want to continue to translate without having to get in trouble in case something happens. Does anyone know if there are programs where I can become a certified translator?

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

We have a "blue phone" for translating/interpretetation which we use for admission, assessment and discharge. We do have many Spanish-speaking nurses and while they cannot do official interpretations, it helps with making the patients feel more comfortable to have someone able to ask them how they are doing, food preferences. I know enough to ask "what # pain they have" and "where" When we get pts that speak something difficult to translate like, Farsi or Punjabi, we use the phone. We had one little old lady that was so excited to be able to talk to someone in her native language while we waited for providers to show up LOL.

We definitely have to have a certified interpreter for admission and discharge processes.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

A former tech at the clinic I work at is Mexican-American. We had a Cuban immigrant whom she thought she could translate for, although we had told her repeatedly to use the language line to avoid conflict. Due to dialect differences, she had a complaint lobbied against her by the patient and the patient's family because of remarks that they deemed inappropriate. She was terminated because of the complaints. Sad, because other than not taking this advice, she was a great tech

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

Quote

Due to dialect differences, she had a complaint lobbied against her by the patient and the patient's family because of remarks that they deemed inappropriate

That sounds like the pt had an issue with the tech that had nothing to do with her performance. Sad.

[amoLucia]

And if I'm not mistaken, I think the same language requirement service caveats apply for hearing impaired pts.

Had a co-worker who was taking AmSLAN training. Very rigorous education also. If I remember, she wanted certification.

[klone, MSN, RN]

3 hours ago, mmc51264 said:

That sounds like the pt had an issue with the tech that had nothing to do with her performance. Sad.

Not necessarily. We have two physicians who are both very fluent in Spanish and go on annual medical missions to Peru. They both learned recently that a phrase they normally use to their Peruvian Spanish-speaking patients without any issues is actually quite vulgar to Mexican Spanish-speaking patients.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

13 hours ago, klone said:

Not necessarily. We have two physicians who are both very fluent in Spanish and go on annual medical missions to Peru. They both learned recently that a phrase they normally use to their Peruvian Spanish-speaking patients without any issues is actually quite vulgar to Mexican Spanish-speaking patients.

Exactly what happened in the case of our tech. Verified by another Spanish speaking patient who tried to tell her, and she wouldn't listen to them either. Dialects make the difference

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I used to work for a hospital where you could get certified as a Spanish translator (why only Spanish, I don't know). They had two levels of translator: 1 (some knowledge) and 2 (fluent). If you had level 1, you could translate on a casual basis but still needed official translating services for documentation, assessments, etc. Obtaining level 2 was very difficult to do, but once achieved, you did not have to use official translating services. You also got paid extra.

[PollywogNP, ADN, BSN, MSN, LPN, NP]

One local hospital also certifies Spanish interpreters level one can only interpret casual conversations. Level two interpreters can interpret for legal documents such as informed consent. Using language line services has its problems. When I was teaching nursing my student use the language line. The patient asked about her Foley catheter and use the word “sonda” (from ureteral sound device), language line interpreter thought the patient was asking about her intravenous catheter and use the word we do not use in Mexican American Spanish. I asked the interpreter if she was Puerto Rican which she was. I have been interpreting for over 42 years as a native Spanish speaker you do have to be careful in using correct medical terminology you need to identify the country of origin for whatever language is being spoken because there are different words used in south western United States Spanish depending on if the patient is Cuban Puerto Rican or from another South American countries such as Guatemala. Yes I am familiar with certain words used in South America to describe gastrointestinal anatomy such as the rectum. The common word used there to Mexican Americans is considered a vulgar term. Culo which means butt or *** in some Spanish speaking countries to Mexican Spanish speakers is a very impolite term.