Medical translation mini project!

[Kenny同志]

Two days and many posts later, still not a single translation, from either side of the discussion.

 

Few professionals would spend two hours or so translating these lines free of charge, I am afraid.

[艾紫茉]

I understand your cautions and concerns. I want to assure you that what I want to learn in no way takes the place of informed consent. I take my profession very seriously. I just want to be able to communicate with patients and give them an idea of what is going on instead of just standing there in awkward silence. I have experienced this with spanish speaking,creole speaking, russian speaking patients, italian speaking patients, etc. Making an attempt to cross the language barrier and communicate goes a long way, and patients really appreciate that. Even if you're on google translate to look up one word, they love it. I always use a professional translator for explaining procedures or informed consent. The hospital also has informed consent forms translated in 3 languages. Communicating with them isn't only about healthcare but also about making the patient feel comfortable and building trust. This person makes the effort to communicate with me = this person cares about me. They won't be as scared.

 

Also going through the translator process is time consuming. If a patient has just had surgery and all you want to know is if the patient has gone to the bathroom yet, no one is going to call the translator. They will look up "Did you poop?" "Did you pee?" "Did it hurt?" Most of the time there is nothing wrong. If something appears to be wrong then a translator will be called for a more detailed translation. 

 

Again I understand your concerns, but also realize that many hospitals are understaffed and overworked. Time is valuable. If 2 residents are in charge of 30 patients, they won't call up a translator to ask one question as basic as "did you poop?" If there are 40 patients in the emergency room waiting to be seen and 1 person has to triage those patients, knowing how to take a quick and simple history will help that person know if this persons situation is serious or if it can wait a little.

Again, I took years of chinese in college and I am very comfortable with comprehension. I would not dare to ask questions in a language I don't feel comfortable with. I am not comfortable with french creole so even though I have a pdf of a full history in french creole, I give it to people who speak conversational french. I don't use it myself.

 

Hope this helps to clarify some confusion.

[艾紫茉]

The link onebir posted was exactly what I was looking for so I no longer need any help with this topic. And if any of you are interested to see what I was looking for you can look at onebir's link.

[abcdefg]

I understand your sincere desire to help your patients and commend you for it. And I definitely know about the time constraints in a busy hospital setting.

 

It reassures me to know you are aware of potential hazards and pitfalls. Hope that the reference materials in Onebir's link are useful in your situation. Also hope you thrive and prosper in your practice.