La interpretación en los hospitales flamencos: la perspectiva de los intérpretes y las expectativas del personal sanitario

Abstract

In Flanders (Belgium) social interpreters and intercultural mediators help bridge the communication gap between foreign language speaking patients and healthcare workers. This paper reports on a comparative survey among social interpreters and intercultural mediators with a focus on how they perceive their role and tasks as interpreters in a healthcare setting. We examine if this is related to different codes of conduct and task descriptions. The survey showed that intercultural mediators feel that they can take on various roles, and have a whole range of responsibilities and duties, much more than social interpreters. In practice, social interpreters find it difficult to stick to their code of conduct. Another survey among healthcare workers working inside a hospital revealed that, in general, their expectations of an interpreter correspond more to the profile of an intercultural mediator than to the profile of a social interpreter. Resumen: En Flandes (Bélgica), los intérpretes sociales y mediadores interculturales ayudan a cerrar la brecha de comunicación entre los pacientes que hablan lenguas extranjeras y el personal sanitario. El presente artículo pretende informar sobre una encuesta comparativa entre intérpretes sociales y mediadores interculturales, en la que se pregunta cómo perciben su papel y sus tareas como intérpretes en un entorno de atención sanitaria, y si se relaciona con diferentes códigos de conducta y descripciones de tareas. La encuesta demostró que los mediadores interculturales se sienten capaces de asumir diferentes papeles, y que tienen toda una serie de responsabilidades y deberes, mucho más amplios que los intérpretes sociales. En la práctica, los intérpretes sociales encuentran dificultades para apegarse a su código de conducta. Otra encuesta realizada entre personal sanitario que trabaja en un hospital reveló que, en general, las expectativas que tienen del intérprete corresponden más al perfil de mediador intercultural que al perfil de intérprete social.Palabras clave: Mediación intercultural; interpretación en los servicios públicos; encuesta; código de conducta; papel del intérprete. INTRODUCTIONIn the last decades, there have been some major demographic changes all over the world, one of the most prominent of which is a persistent rise in the number of migrants. Since 2000, the number of international migrants has increased by 41% (United Nations 2015). This is also the case in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, where the number of international immigrants increased by approximately 50% from 2000 until 2010 (Pelfrene & Van Peer 2014. As a consequence, hospital staff members are increasingly confronted with patients who speak foreign languages and have limited or no skills in the language(s) of the host countries.Researchers in the Netherlands studied the importance of language in healthcare and concluded that low language proficiency has adverse effects on health, since it impedes doctor-patient communication. They found that knowledge of the local language(s) is e...

Observing briefly trained, non-certified interpreters at work: Risk Analysis

“…Public service interpreters, on the other hand, are explicitly forbidden to do so by their COC. Two other differences set the two profiles apart: (1) settings -PSI work in a variety of settings such as education, integration, healthcare and social welfare whereas intercultural mediators in Belgium mainly work in healthcare-and (2) their overarching organizational structures: public service interpreter services are funded by the Flemish government whereas intercultural mediators in hospitals are funded by the Belgian Federal government (Van de Geuchte & Van Vaerenbergh, 2017). Clearly, being trained by the Integration Agency, which depends on the Flemish Government, the LAs included in this study were expected to perform roles oriented more towards the ideal of invisibility and non-intervention.…”