On professional and non-professional interpreting in healthcare services: the case of intercultural mediators

Claudio Baraldi; Laura Gavioli

doi:10.1515/eujal-2015-0026

Article

On professional and non-professional interpreting in healthcare services: the case of intercultural mediators

Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli

Published/Copyright: January 16, 2016

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From the journal European Journal of Applied Linguistics Volume 4 Issue 1

Abstract

A debate that has revolved around the organisation of Italian healthcare interpreting services concerns the choice adopted by most institutions to employ intercultural mediators rather than professional interpreters. Intercultural mediators do not necessarily have a professional training in interpreting, they are, however, preferred to professional interpreters in that they are considered more competent in mediating the possibly different perspectives of healthcare providers and migrant patients. This preference provides food for thought for reflections on professionalism in interpreter-mediated interaction in healthcare. Drawing form a 10-year research on mediator-interpreted interactions in healthcare and a set of data comprising around 250 consultations, our contribution sets out as an attempt to clarify what is involved in this mediating work. Our analysis shows that mediators’ agency is relevant both in providing renditions of participants’ utterances and in promoting their active participation in the interaction. We describe the different ways in which mediators’ agency is displayed in interactions and the interactional constraints on mediators’ choices of action. Suggestions derived from our analysis may have an impact on the improvement of both mediators’ and interpreters’ professionalism with particular reference to facilitating communication with migrant patients, an aspect that has been recognized as highly problematic in the literature.

Resumen

Uno de los debates más encendidos sobre la organización de los servicios de interpretación en el ámbito sanitario en Italia se refiere a la elección, adoptada por la mayoría de las instituciones, de contratar a mediadores interculturales en vez que a intérpretes profesionales. Los mediadores interculturales no necesariamente tienen capacitación en interpretación; sin embargo, se les prefiere con respecto a los intérpretes profesionales ya que se consideran más competentes a la hora de mediar las diferentes perspectivas del personal médico-sanitario y de los pacientes inmigrantes. Eso lleva a muchas reflexiones sobre la profesionalización en las interacciones mediadas por intérprete en el ámbito sanitario. Nuestro aporte, resultado de una década de investigación en este tema con una recolección de datos de unos 250 encuentros mediados, intenta aclarar qué supone esta tarea mediadora. Nuestro análisis demuestra que la agency (agencia) de los mediadores se percibe tanto a la hora de facilitar las expresiones de los enunciados de los participantes como a la hora de promover su participación activa en la interacción. Describimos las diferentes maneras en las que se muestra la agency de los mediadores durante las interacciones y los vínculos interaccionales para los propios mediadores en sus elecciones de acción. Las sugerencias que derivan de nuestro análisis pueden impactar en la mejora tanto de la profesionalización de los mediadores como de los intérpretes, con especial referencia a la posibilidad de facilitar la comunicación con los pacientes inmigrantes, un aspecto que se ha reconocido como altamente problemático en toda la literatura.

Zusammenfassung

Die Tatsache, dass im italienischen Gesundheitswesen in der Regel „interkulturelle Mittler“ an Stelle von „professionellen Dolmetschern“ eingesetzt werden, hat in letzter Zeit eine Kontroverse ausgelöst. Interkulturelle Mittler sind nicht notwendigerweise als professionelle Dolmetscher ausgebildet. Sie werden jedoch oftmals bevorzugt, da angenommen wird, dass sie eher in der Lage sind, den potentiell unterschiedlichen Perspektiven von Vertretern des Gesundheitswesens und Patienten mit Migrationshintergrund gerecht zu werden. Die Aufmerksamkeit, die seitens der Institutionen den Anforderungen an die Vermittlung zwischen Krankenhausmitarbeitern und Patienten mit kulturell unterschiedlichen Hintergründen entgegengebracht wird, bietet Anlass für eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Frage, was Professionalität für dolmetscher-vermittelte Interaktionen im Gesundheitswesen bedeutet. Ausgehend von 10 Jahren Forschung zum Thema „mittler-gedolmetschte“ Interaktion im Gesundheitswesen und auf der Basis eines Korpus von insgesamt 250 Arzt-Patienten-Gesprächen wird in diesem Beitrag der Frage nachgegangen, was die Tätigkeit von Mittlern ausmacht. Unsere Analyse zeigt, dass interkulturelle Mittler ihren Handlungsspielraum sowohl bei der Gestaltung von Translationen als auch für die aktive Beteiligung der anderen Gesprächspartner einsetzen. Wir beschreiben die verschiedenen Verfahren, mit denen interkulturelle Mittler ihren Beteiligungsstatus zum Ausdruck bringen und die Beschränkungen, denen das Mittlerhandeln unterliegt.

Keywords: mediation; interpreting; interaction; agency

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Published Online: 2016-1-16

Published in Print: 2016-3-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2015-0026

Keywords for this article

mediation; interpreting; interaction; agency