Professional Education: Cultural Competency: TRANSLATE

TRANSLATE
A Mnemonic for Working with Medical Interpreters

TRUST	How will trust be developed in the patient-clinician-interpreter triadic relationship? In relationships with the patient's family and other health care professionals?
ROLES	What role(s) will the interpreter play in the clinical care process (e.g., language translator, culture broker/informant, culture broker/interpreter of biomedical culture, advocate)?
ADVOCACY	How will advocacy and support for patient- and family-centered care occur? How will power and loyalty issues be handled?
NON-JUDGMENTAL ATTITUDE	How can a non-judgmental attitude be maintained during health care encounters? How will personal beliefs, values, opinions, biases, and stereotypes be dealt with?
SETTING	Where and how will medical interpretation occur during health care encounters (e.g., use of salaried interpreters, contract interpreters, volunteers, Language Line)?
LANGUAGE	What methods of communication will be employed? How will linguistic appropriateness and competence be assessed?
ACCURACY	How will knowledge and information be exchanged in an accurate, thorough, and complete manner during health care encounters?
TIME	How will time be appropriately managed during health care encounters?
ETHICAL ISSUES	How will potential ethical conflicts be handled during health care encounters? How will confidentiality of clinical information be maintained?

© 1997
Developed by: Robert C. Like, MD, MS Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity
Department of Family Medicine
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Adapted from and based on the work of Kaufert, J. M., and R. W. Putsch. 1997. "Communication through Interpreters in Healthcare: Ethical Dilemmas Arising from Differences in Class, Culture, Language, and Power." Journal of Clinical Ethics 8(1):71-87.

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