In research, involvement of relevant agents (healthcare educators, students, interpreters, patients, doctors/nurses) in all phases, from planning to implementation, is desirable and required. In this presentation, we focus on the involvement of healthcare educators in a research project on interpreting , present examples of their valuable contributions and show its influence on education of interpreters.
In multi-lingual societies like Norway, language barriers in healthcare constitute a serious problem that can place patients at risk and produce inequity in healthcare. In line with Wadensjö's conception of interpreting as interaction, metaphorically presented as "a dance for three", healthcare professionals as well as healthcare educational programs need new knowledge and skills related to interpreter-meditated interaction. In order to address this challenge, we designed a research project with the main aim to provide new knowledge concerning how healthcare personnel should determine when an interpreter is required.
Involvement of relevant actors (health care educators, students, interpreters, patients, doctors/nurses) in all phases of research, from planning to implementation, is desirable and required. In this presentation, we focus on the involvement of one of these actors, namely healthcare educators. Involvement here means acquiring information from health educators concerning their experiences about interpreting as an issue in healthcare education. We conducted an online survey in 2018 (n=119, N=600) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University).
Here we will present the answers to one of five questions asked: "Give examples of situations where it is of particular importance that patients and healthcare personnel communicate well (related to your field of practice)". The health care encompasses service provisions like, for example, provisions at Centers for Learning and Mastery, occupational therapy and home-based health care services. Some of the service provisions appear to be unique to Norway, which implies also local challenges that should be identified and analyzed and taken into regard in research design. Our preliminary findings indicate that health care educators perceive health care as a much broader concept than addressed in research on interpreting in health care settings in general, as well as in our project. In turn, this also has implications for how these various health care settings are introduced to students of interpreting.
