Description
Facilitate accurate, impartial communication between patients, families, and healthcare professionals by interpreting spoken or sign language and translating medical materials across languages in clinical settings, preserving meaning, context, and confidentiality.
- • Follow ethical codes and hospital policies, maintaining confidentiality (e.g., HIPAA) and impartiality.
- • Interpret patient-provider communications consecutively or simultaneously in clinics, inpatient units, and telehealth, preserving content and tone.
- • Provide sight translation of medical forms, consents, discharge instructions, and patient education materials.
- • Identify and resolve ambiguities in medical terminology, concepts, and culturally specific practices.
- • Use plain language and adapt messages to patients' health literacy while preserving clinical intent.
- • Consult medical dictionaries, glossaries, and terminology databases to ensure accuracy.
- • Verify translations of medical terms for consistency across revisions and documents.
- • Proofread, edit, and revise translated patient-facing materials for clarity and accuracy.
- • Gather context about the encounter, diagnosis, and intended audience to guide interpreting or translation.
- • Confer with clinicians, care teams, or authors to ensure translations retain meaning and clinical nuance.
- • Conduct pre-session introductions and establish roles, confidentiality, and communication flow.
- • Manage the flow of communication, using first-person interpreting and note-taking as appropriate.
- • Provide interpreting via in-person, phone, or video remote platforms; travel between departments or facilities as needed.
- • Document interpreting assignments per facility procedures and coordinate scheduling with staff or agencies.
- • Educate patients and healthcare staff about the scope and boundaries of medical interpreting.
- • Mentor, train, or supervise other interpreters or translators as assigned.
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Public Service & Safety
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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Last reviewed: Jan 2026
