ARCHIVED - MATI 2016 Webinar Series - Hard Conversations with Health Care and Legal Professionals about Interpreting Protocol

RECORDING OF ARCHIVED WEBINAR ONLY

NO CEUs AWARDED

Hard Conversations with Health Care and Legal Professionals about Interpreting Protocol

*This Webinar is accredited by CCHI for 1 CEU*

For professional interpreters working in the Midwest, providing education to professionals in our communities about the best practices of interpreting is challenging. Along with our growing limited English proficient (LEP) populations in the United States, the need for quality interpretation services and interpreting training is growing at an exponential rate.

Interpreters know this. What about those who don’t? It is difficult to explain to healthcare providers that treating an LEP patient without professional interpreting services can drastically affect the outcome of their care. Likewise, asking lab technicians to wait for the interpreter to relay the message “You’ll feel a poke” before the technician sticks a needle into a patient’s arm can be a tricky conversation. How do we portray the message to our local police departments that the lack of professional interpreters in police interrogations potentially leads to coerced testimonies and violations of due process for LEP community members? On the same token, how do we articulate to the police officer of those departments that our services cannot be provided in the emergency department by the medical interpreter on the basis of ethics? Finally, is it possible to respectfully teach interpreters without training that professionals and LEP community members should talk directly to one another or that omissions, additions and incorrect terminology can be life threatening?

This webinar explores how we can be proactive as educators of interpretation in the face of difficult conversations with non-interpreters. We will examine how to carry out dialogs that lead to transformative learning and explore simulation labs, role-playing and mini-training sessions implemented in medical, legal and social contexts. For the professionalization of our field we can educate our Midwest communities about the best practices of interpreting – one person at a time.

Bio:  

Michelle Pinzl graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a B.A. in Spanish and Interpersonal Communication in 2006. In 2012, she earned a Master’s degree in Applying Foreign Languages and Cultures to Intercultural Management from the Université de Limoges in France. She has been interpreting in the medical field since 2005 and became a Spanish-English Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ through the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) in 2014. Michelle now works as a medical interpreter at Mayo Health System as well as free-lance for social service agencies in La Crosse, Wisconsin and surrounding communities. In addition, she is a Visiting Instructor and Coordinator of the Community Interpreting Certificate at Viterbo University where she teaches Spanish, French, English and Interpreting Studies.