[Yona Souza]

Cristina, Thanks for sharing information about the bennefits of mapping from the video! I also agree with your point since visualizing a clear and organized map, helps keep our thoughts organized and clear as well, it’s an awesome way to track our thinking and the cronology of events as well.

[Yona Souza]

A good mental retention is a crucial factor when it comes to working as an interpreter, especially a medical one. Being able to retain information is one of the first steps to successful interpretation because one has to retain the info first, so that they can efficiently and effectively convey such information to the other party. Interpreters can’t make up any information, add or subtract anything from the dialogue heard, so it’s important to retain and interpret the information in its entirety and with integrity.

Some things that inhibit one’s mental retention are:

Sleep deprivation—lack of sleep is closely connected to a lack of both short and long-term memory. Sleeping is essential to consolidate our memories, since our brain makes connections when we sleep.

Poor diet—Omega 3 fatty acids and other nutrients are extremely important for brain health, so eating food that lacks nutrients and important compounds for our body may negatively impact our mental retention.

Poor mental health also inhibits mental retention. Studies have shown that maintaining a good state of mental health, by maintaining relationships that boost emotional well-being, laughing, etc, helps mental retention; therefore, if one’s mental health isn’t good, that negatively impacts their mental retention.

A sedentary lifestyle also inhibits mental retention, mainly because the brain gets bored/shuts down, and the brain doesn’t receive an increase in oxygen. Our brain can create new things, make connections, and remember things better when it receives increased oxygen. Running, walking, or doing any sort of exercise helps with this because oxygen travels in the bloodstream and goes to the brain at a higher rate. When people maintain a poor diet and don’t exercise, the brain is also in a poor state, and this inhibits mental retention.

[Yona Souza]

As seen in the video, one of the most powerful ways to retain information is by visualizing it, since about 10 million bits of information go into our brain every second through our eyes, in comparison, only one million bits of information are sent to the brain from all other four sources of senses combined (nose, ear, mouth, and skin). It was very interesting to learn how our brain can retain and connect information more efficiently when we visualize or associate, rather than simply hearing words, and then attempting to memorize what we heard.

A good way to practice retention is to create a mental image to retain information, such as symptoms, feelings, chronology of events, and difficult words. Another way to make the interpreting session more effective and smooth is to use the backward drilling technique, where the interpreter starts by conducting the harder information or important terminology first, that is, the information that is harder to mess up or forget, and then tying that to the easier and all other information said. A good thing highlighted in the video was that interpreters must rely on integrity; they can’t make up any information, add or subtract anything from the dialogue heard, However, interpreters may conduct the information in a different order than it was given by the speaker, as long as it covers everything that was said with integrity, which reminds of the commutative trick used in math multiplication: the order of factors doesn’t change the final product. I also enjoyed learning how to make my notes more effective by only writing down useful information and what’s most important, drawing symbols, and also mapping!

[Yona Souza]

Hi Joseph, I agree with you that when we understand medical terminology the accuracy of the information we interpret is much higher. I think that this point you touched on is insightful. Understanding terminology is something we should always practice and get better at!

[Yona Souza]

Leonisa, I think you have an excellent understanding of why and how knowing suffixes and prefixes is important as interpreters in the medical field. It totally makes the job easier and more efficient if we learn medical terminology.

[Yona Souza]

Understanding the suffixes and prefixes as a medical interpreter is really important because as interpreters, we have to efficiently conduct the information and we don’t get a long time to do it, it’s done in real-time. Knowing how these grammar pieces work together in forming the words we see, hear, and read is crucial to efficiently interpreting the information in a short amount of time. This isn’t a matter of memorizing vocabulary but instead learning the basics to crack the code of a medical term. It’s helpful to determine the suffix, prefix, and root(s) of terms because, through this method, even a word that you might not know becomes easy or easier to understand its meaning.

[Yona Souza]

Joseph, I find your opinion to be very on-point regarding the present-day situation in the United States. No, these legislations aren’t enough, however, as you mentioned, there is a big challenge within this whole concept because of all the multiple cultures and languages they have to account for.

[Yona Souza]

Hi Milleny, I agree with your opinion based on this topic, and I love that you fully give your opinion based on lived experience. You touched on an interesting point regarding the importance of having the Massachusetts Emergency Room Bill well-regulated because it allows the family of LEP individuals to be free from the burden of interpreting to a loved one while going through so many emotions and chaos in an emergency situation.

[Yona Souza]

Although the state of Massachusetts has done a great job at enforcing legislation regarding language access for individuals with limited proficiency, I believe that it’s still not enough. There are more than 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, and many people who migrate to the United States may face difficulties gaining access to the right resources in the healthcare field because providers struggle to connect with an available interpreter who speaks that specific language. Of course, Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin LEPs are a large community in the United States. They are considered easier to find an interpreter for, because such languages are more common here in the northeast area, present day legislation still doesn’t successfully mediate the needs of LEP individuals, especially for speakers whose language is not so common in a specific area. I believe that current legislation fails to embrace so many different cultures. An example of this is: that you may speak Spanish, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re from Spain. Because there are millions of different cultures and also different ways to communicate, finding the right resource and interpreter plays a critical role in order to successfully solve this issue. I have witnessed many cases in which I went to the hospital with my parents and instead of my parents receiving the right resource which would be a Portuguese interpreter who speaks Brazilian Portuguese, we received an interpreter who spoke Portuguese from Portugal, which of course was still helpful. However, millions of words are completely different in these two languages, and instead of the interpretation being there as an asset, it became a language barrier because it was more difficult to understand their Portugal- Portuguese accent, and words that we never heard before.

[Yona Souza]

Lesly, I love that you gave a great example of the patient advocate role. When a patient is going into an important procedure such as surgery, being a patient advocate is an extremely crucial role that has to be played by the interpreter. Every information including risks and cautions should be mentioned and accounted for. That way the patient knows what they’re truly going through without any doubt.

[Yona Souza]

Joseph, I like the way you describe the patient advocate role as delicate because it truly is! It’s important to know how to act in this role and when to interrupt the conversation when needed as well. You touched on important points and the description you used made me think more deeply about the advocate role. Thank you for your presentation.

[Yona Souza]

Thank you so much for your feedback! And yes, I have noticed all the things you said because I once did it myself when I used to need an interpreter. Being an interpreter doesn’t mean we can answer all medical-related questions, rather we’re supposed to conduct any questions to the provider so that they can correctly address any questions or concerns.

[Yona Souza]

Leonisa, I like the way you mention that pre-sessions prevent any misunderstandings which I agree with as well. It definitely sets all parties for success because like you said, interpreters guide both patients and providers throughout the whole talk.

[Yona Souza]

Lesly, I love that you mention how a pre-session sets clear expectations for both parties during the interpreting process. I also agree that this factor is extremely important and useful because it allows them to better understand when to wait for their turn to talk, and what to ask during their apointment.

[Yona Souza]

The four chief roles of a medical interpreter are:

1. Message Conveyor or Conduit: As a medical interpreter, you’re supposed to conduct the message from the provider or patient without adding or subtracting any details, by first listening to the speaker observing their body language, and converting that message from one language to the other.

Example: The provider reports the patient is diagnosed with kidney stones disease, and an interpreter interprets that information without adding that the patient was diagnosed with the disease because they didn’t drink enough water or remove the word stones from the sentence. In this example removing the word stones would change the whole meaning of the diagnostic and adding a causation that might not be the right root of the disease is completely wrong and unethical.

2. Message Clarifier: A message clarifier pays close attention to any wording that may cause misunderstanding between both parties when interpreting. They may interrupt the communication verbally or using gestures, alert the parties if having any confusion regarding terminology or information in general, and request or assist the speaker to better describe a word or analogy if there aren’t any equivalent words in either language.

Example: Professionally interrupting the provider while they’re communicating because the patient looks confused from the last sentence that was interpreted

3. Cultural Broker/Clarifier: The interpreter must be alert to any cultural rds or concepts that lead to misunderstanding and trouble clarification during the communication process.

An example of this is when a patient uses terminology and phrasing that might be plausible to use in their language but the interpreter has to be alert when conveying the information and alerting both parties on the cultural implications of the information received.

4. Patient Advocate: The interpreter may bring a concern they observed to someone in charge, or who can correct it before the situation becomes a bigger problem.
Example: If an interpreter witnesses a case in which the patient or provider is discriminated against they may bring that concern to attention with someone who can correct the issue.

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