Workshops for Health Care Facilities

Your Challenge is a steady influx of patients whose primary language is not English. Difficulty communicating with these patients – whether it’s at the reception desk, in the ER, or in the clinician’s office.  You rely on your bilingual staff – but – are they truly proficient in both their languages?  Has a professional company specializing in language proficiency screening tested them? Have they been trained in the ethics and standards of health care interpreting?  Did you know that untrained interpreters are at high risk for communication errors with potentially serious clinical consequences –such as adding material, leaving things out, giving their own opinions or changing the message entirely?
Your Solution is a series of interactive presentations and workshops designed to help you provide quality care and meaningful access to all your patients – regardless of the language they speak.

Introduction to Health Care Interpreting
This 4-hour introduction to the practice of health care interpretation is for bilingual staff of health care facilities. This overview provides bilingual staff with the opportunity to learn what is involved in being a health care interpreter, and to determine if they are ready for further screening and training.
The workshop covers:
  • Introduction to health care interpreting
  • The role of the health care interpreter
  • Code of ethics for health care interpreters
  • Standards of practice for health care interpreters
Connecting Worlds - Training for Health Care Interpreters
This intensive 40-hour curriculum, based on the CHIA (California Healthcare Interpreters Association) Standards, prepares bilingual individuals to work as health care interpreters within clinic and hospital settings. Language proficiency screening prior to admission and interpreter skills testing upon completion helps to ensure that your staff are qualified to interpret.
The course covers:
  • Models & Standards of Practice for Health Care Interpreting
  • The Roles of the Health Care Interpreter
  • Code of Ethics for Health Care Interpreters
  • Cultural Competency for Health Care Interpreters
  • Legal Requirements and Patient Advocacy
  • Health Care Interpreting as a Profession
  • Bilingual Medical Terminology
Connecting Worlds Plus: Professional development & skill building for Health Care Interpreters
As with any profession, continuing education is a critical component to ensure ongoing skill development and competence.
These quarterly 2-hour modules are intended for bilingual staff and interpreters who have already completed the 40-hour Connecting Worlds (or similar) training.
The modules cover:
  • Review of key concepts
  • Case studies: group discussion of interpreting challenges and application of CHIA Standards and Protocols
  • Memory development
  • Active Listening
  • Health topics & terminology building: anatomy & physiology, signs & symptoms, diagnostic questions, procedures & medications
  • Role playing
Health topics for vocabulary development and role playing are customized to your organization’s needs and can include: diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy and childbirth, HIV/AIDS, pandemic preparation or other health-related topics.

Stress Busters for Interpreters
This 90-minute workshop addresses both obvious and less apparent sources of stress, the physiological and health consequences of these stressors and offers simple and powerful techniques to change stress responses and increase  job satisfaction. Participants learn:
  • How stress affects their physical, mental and emotional state
  • How acute stress can turn into chronic stress
  • How to identify and reduce hidden sources of stress
  • How to apply effective self-care techniques to support  resilience to stress
  • How to release the body’s deep tension with a simple 5–minute daily routine
  • How to use the heart’s intelligence to rebalance the autonomic nervous system
“So unique, necessary and helpful! Thank you for such a gifted presenter with fantastic insights!” ATA conference attendee, Denver, CO.
“I loved your workshop. Very interesting, encouraging, positive and innovative.” Alex Kemper, ATA 2012 Annual Conference, San Diego, Ca.

Interpreting in Palliative Care
The demand for palliative care services has grown with the aging of the population and our evolving understanding of appropriate end-of-life care.  Hospitals, clinics, and nursing facilities are challenged to provide such services across different cultures and languages.  For healthcare interpreters, the ability to interpret these unique encounters is a useful skill that requires specialized training.

The Palliative Care curriculum, funded by the California HealthCare Foundation, was designed for working interpreters who have completed introductory training in health care interpreting. This is an 8-hour training and includes activities that allow interpreters to review and practice skills such as sight translation and consecutive and simultaneous interpreting while helping them learn more about palliative care as a new and rapidly growing field in medicine.


http://kontactr.com/user/JulieBurns