Distressing Discussions in Pediatric Interpreted Medical Encounters: A Qualitative Study of Medical Interpreter Perspectives on Clinician Communication Practices. J Pediatr Health Care 2024;38(2):127-139
Date
03/02/2024Pubmed ID
38429025Pubmed Central ID
PMC10913774DOI
10.1016/j.pedhc.2023.11.017Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85185299673 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
INTRODUCTION: This study explores pediatric medical interpreters' perspectives on clinician communication practices in medical encounters characterized by distressing content and difficult discussions.
METHOD: In this interpretative phenomenological analysis, 13 Spanish-English interpreters at a midwestern pediatric hospital were purposively recruited and, in 2021-2022, completed a demographic survey and semistructured interview on communication in distressing interpreted medical encounters.
RESULTS: Participants described clinician practices for effective cross-cultural interpreted communication. Practices align with recommendations on prebriefing, debriefing, jargon, stakeholder positioning, and teamwork. Novel findings relate to encounters with multiple parties, multilingual patients with monolingual parents, and coordination among clinicians.
DISCUSSION: Findings corroborate recommendations for interpreted communication best practices, extend them to distressing pediatric encounters, and offer recommendations for clinicians using interpreting services in distressing encounters. Participants' insights are distilled into a series of clinician best practices for high-quality interpreted communication during difficult discussions and for strengthening language access services in pediatric medical settings.
Author List
Olen A, Lim PS, Escandell S, Balistreri KA, Tager JB, Davies WH, Scanlon MC, Rothschild CBAuthors
Kathryn A. Ritchie MS Instructor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinCharles Baron Rothschild MD Associate Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Matthew C. Scanlon MD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Allied Health PersonnelChild
Communication
Communication Barriers
Humans
Language
Qualitative Research