Language Services Blog

While the concept of hiring blind and low vision employees was applauded by everyone at AMN Healthcare, there were necessary steps that needed to be put into place in order to enable the tools that these communities would need to be successful.

On ASL Interpreter Appreciation Day, we are giving thanks to medical interpreters and advocates and sharing their stories.

Medical interpreting is no easy task due to the high stress environment and nature of conversations that take place as well as the complexity of the work itself. Studies have found that the intensity level of an interpreting session has a larger impact on interpreter fatigue than the length of the session. 

Relying on a patient's friend or family member as an ad hoc interpreter is damaging to both the patient and the interpreter.

Read examples of problematic language barrier situations in healthcare and how augmented translation services help.

Medical interpreters are challenged with retaining a large amount of information and quickly conveying it into another language for communication to flow smoothly from the LEP patient to the provider and back again. 

Communication is key in healthcare. For that reason, healthcare facilities are required to provide the services of hospital translators and interpreters.

Nonverbal communication, especially body language, can send a strong message that may support or conflict with the spoken word.