Decision-making in paediatric palliative care interpreting

The interpreting profession has long used metaphors or rule statements to describe and teach the ways in which practitioners make decisions (Dean & Pollard, 2011, 2018). Interpreting students are also often taught that the context of an encounter will dictate their decision-making by way of statements such as “it depends”. Such pedagogical statements can make talk between a practitioner and a medical professional about the responsibilities of an interpreter during medical encounters difficult. This study is based on the work of Dean and Pollard (2011, 2018) on value-based decision-making and is guided by the four principles of biomedical ethics (respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice). It has sought to provide evidence of the existence, applicability and usability of these frameworks through a single case study of a real-life appointment in which a parent of a palliative care outpatient and a medical professional communicated during a consultation, aided by a medical interpreter.

Reflection-in-action: Measuring ‘context’ in medical interpreting

Community interpreting scholarship has solidly established the importance of appreciating the nuances of context to effective interpreting practice (Angelelli, 2004; Wadensjo?, 1998). Several frameworks for identifying and articulating the way context affects interpreting work have been articulated (Dean & Pollard, 2011). What is less well documented is the way interpreters learn to develop an understanding of context and how that subsequently informs their practice. This article describes the development and implementation of a tool to assess interpreters’ facility in identifying and articulating context – specifically in healthcare settings. The activities and the assessment tool are grounded in the educational theories of Donald Schön and his foregrounding of the intuitive practice abilities of professionals. The resulting assessment tool was refined through its use in postgraduate courses in healthcare interpreting, where various aspects of the healthcare context were explained using videos of provider–patient interactions. Through reflective practice activities, students analysed their practical knowledge and skills and improved their context-based insight. Currently designed for signed language interpreters in medical settings based in the United States, this multi-component assessment tool can be adapted to various contexts in community interpreting.

Simulating the context of interpreter-mediated social work interactions via interprofessional education

Interpreters and social workers frequently work together. They share some common goals and there is some similarity between the ethical guidelines that both professions follow. Despite this, interpreter-mediated social work encounters are rarely described, especially from the perspective of interpreting studies. Even more infrequent are studies that focus on trainee interpreters’ and social workers’ engagement in interprofessional education (IPE). Details of the design and delivery of IPE training sessions for interpreting and social work students, at Monash University from May 2017 to May 2019, are provided. The sessions featured two role-plays that simulated typical interactions in which interpreters and social workers work together. To assess the effectiveness of the IPE training in meeting both general and specific learning outcomes, three research questions were posed and the responses are reported in this article. The questions relate to the reported usefulness of role-plays in enabling the acquisition of desirable skills and knowledge; an increase in the level of knowledge of the other professional group, one’s own group and the perceived benefits for service-users; and the usefulness of pre- and post-interactional activities, such as briefing and debriefing. Responses to questionnaires were received from 218 of the 442 participating students. On a Likert scale with five gradings the average levels of agreement regarding the usefulness of role-plays are high, as are the levels of agreement about increases in knowledge of the other professional group and those of the students’ own professional group. The student informants reported that the skills they gained are likely to be beneficial to clients and patients with limited English proficiency. The trainees’ responses to their pre- and post-interactional interactions show that both groups registered a high level of agreement that briefings and debriefings are useful.

impact of context on community interpreting research, practice & training

Although the notion of context is omnipresent in research in interpreting studies (IS), especially in community settings, and defines the ways in which interpreting is being practised, researched and trained, it has not yet been recognized or defined as a topic in its own right, at least not within IS. Starting from some theoretical notions on the concept of context, this article moves on to discuss different levels of context, namely, geographical, socio-institutional and interactional. By means of examples from a variety of settings in community interpreting (CI), it shows how the different levels of context interact, and, in these ways, have an impact on CI practice, research and training.

Narratives in conflict and the limits on the interpreter’s agency: A case study from the UN Peacekeeping mission in Lebanon

This article presents a socio-linguistic analysis of interpreting in conflict zones and paints a picture of the limits on the interpreter’s agency when working in the field. It focuses on the interpreter’s behaviour towards cultural and linguistic barriers in communication between foreign military personnel and the civilian population in Lebanon. The aim is to analyse the level of agency that the interpreter has when working in a military deployment, taking into account the context and the narrative features that require mediation. Data were gathered through interviews with interpreters in Lebanon and analysed by applying narrative theory. Knowing and appreciating both the theoretical context and the linguistic and cultural barriers identified through the analysis are fundamental to understanding the difficult role that the interpreter-mediator plays in conflict settings and to reflecting on interpreter training that is appropriate to this context.

What do codes of ethics tell us about impartiality, and what is preferred at the hospital?

The impartiality of the interpreter has long been an important aspect of and an indispensable quality in healthcare interpreting. Official documents on professional ethics created by professional associations around the world refer to impartiality among the fundamental ethical principles to be adhered to. However, the conditions in the workplace and the background of the interpreter might pose significant risks to ensuring the implementation and adoption of ethics in the field. Furthermore, specific conditions of immigration and the quality (or the existence) of interpreter training in the required language combinations may play a role in either facilitating or impeding the implementation of ethical principles. As a country that has been receiving migrants for a relatively short time, Turkey lacks a code of ethics specifically drawn up for healthcare (or community) interpreters and this may well lead to problems in the field. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to compare healthcare interpreters’ understanding of, preference for and exercise of impartiality with the prescripts of the codes applicable in other countries and to demonstrate how the principle of impartiality unfolds in healthcare contexts. The results of the study demonstrate that helping the patient was the main motivation of the interpreters in the field rather than being guided purely by impartiality. They reported being deliberately on the patient’s side to support them and to ensure that they obtained the required treatment, an approach which contradicts the codes of the associations in the countries that prefer “interpreting” rather than “mediation”. The analysis pointed to the fact that the meaning of impartiality is shaped by the system in which it is laid down. These results suggest that the codes and the attitudes of healthcare interpreters do not coincide as regards impartiality in a country where healthcare interpreting research and practice are emerging and training opportunities are scarce. They can serve as a useful reference point for policymaking and the professionalization of healthcare interpreters.