Kirby Emma, Broom Alex, Good Phillip, Bowden Vanessa, Lwin Zarnie
School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia.
Department of Palliative Care, St Vincent's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Asia Pac J Clin Oncol. 2017 Oct;13(5):e497-e505. doi: 10.1111/ajco.12563. Epub 2016 Jul 20.
Medical consultations focused on managing the transition to palliative care are interpersonally challenging and require high levels of communicative competence. In the context of non-English speaking patients, communication challenges are further complicated due to the requirement of interpreting; a process with the potential to add intense layers of complexity in the clinical encounter, such as misunderstanding, misrepresentation and power imbalances. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of professional interpreters in supporting the transition of culturally and linguistically diverse patients to specialist palliative care.
Qualitative, semistructured interviews with 20 professional interpreters working in oncology and palliative care settings in two metropolitan hospitals in Queensland, Australia.
Four key themes emerged from the thematic analysis: the challenges of translating the meaning of "palliative care"; managing interpreting in the presence of family care-givers; communicating and expressing sensitivity while remaining professional and interpreters' own emotional burden of difficult clinic encounters between doctor and patient negotiations.
The results suggest that interpreters face a range of often concealed interpersonal and interprofessional challenges and recognition of such dynamics will help provide necessary support for these key stakeholders in the transition to palliative care. Enriched understanding of interpreters' experiences has clinical implications on improving how health professionals interact and work with interpreters in this sensitive setting.
专注于管理向姑息治疗过渡的医疗咨询在人际沟通方面具有挑战性，需要高水平的沟通能力。对于非英语患者而言，由于需要口译，沟通挑战进一步复杂化；口译过程有可能在临床接触中增加复杂层面，如误解、信息误传和权力失衡。本研究的目的是探讨专业口译员在支持文化和语言背景各异的患者向专科姑息治疗过渡方面的经历和观点。
对澳大利亚昆士兰州两家大都市医院肿瘤学和姑息治疗科室工作的20名专业口译员进行定性、半结构化访谈。
主题分析得出四个关键主题：翻译“姑息治疗”含义的挑战；在家庭照顾者在场的情况下进行口译；在保持专业的同时进行沟通并表达敏感性以及口译员在医患谈判艰难的临床接触中自身的情感负担。
结果表明，口译员面临一系列往往被掩盖的人际和跨专业挑战，认识到这些动态情况将有助于为这些关键利益相关者在向姑息治疗过渡中提供必要支持。对口译员经历的更深入理解对改善卫生专业人员在这一敏感环境中与口译员互动及合作的方式具有临床意义。
