Translator for patients

[Auttybee]

I haven't been able to find an answer to this, so I hope you can help me!

If a nurse has a patient that needs discharge teaching done but his primary language is a different language.. can a LPN or CNA translate teaching for that patient if they speak the language? I know LPNs and CNAs can't teach.. so I'm a little confused by this. Even though the RN would be right there instructing them what to say and demonstrating along with the LPN/CNA speaking, would that still be considered a no?

This is just in case a translator can't be found.

[macawake, MSN]

Absolutely. We often have northern African patients who come in with their husbands. They speak Arabic or Amharic, and the patient almost always refuses the medical interpreter and instead wants her husband to interpret, and it's VERY frustrating because I can tell he's not translating appropriately or fully.

In my country the legal right to have a translator present when the patient isn't proficient enough in Swedish to ensure that safe and correct medical care is provided, applies to both parties involved. It's a right that both the patient and the healthcare professional has.

Even though the reason for this is to make sure that the patient receives quality care and the healthcare professional has enough information to avoid making mistakes, a side effect is that it is beneficial when one might suspect an abusive/controlling relationship dynamic or when the partner/family member for various other reasons won't translate everything that we say or ask. (The various other reasons for not interpreting everything verbatim and with the correct medical meaning can vary. Common ones that I've noticed are not wanting to give the patient bad news or finding the question we ask to be embarrassing or personal/intimate).

(The interpretor has to be licensed as a medical interpretor and is of course bound buy the same confidentiality law as healthcare professionals).