Il!'|.liirtlaiii> (Observer
Page B4
Celebrating 'OiCemitlf
August 2. 2006
Doctors, Patients Struggle with Language Barrier
Interpreters
skyrocket ¿is
diversity grows
( A P) —Interpreters trained in
m edical term inology, especially
those sp eaking Spanish, are in
high dem an d as the c o u n try 's
population becom es m ore and
m ore diverse.
T h e boom in H ispanic p o p u
lation has led to the Spanish
dem and, but th e re ’s short sup
ply o f speakers o f o th er lan
guages as well.
In A lbuquerque, N .M ., N a
vajo and V ietnam ese are in high
dem and, w hile in the Pacific
N orthw est, R ussian, V ietn am
ese, C an to n ese and C am bodian
are needed.
“C ertain ly in a m edical set
ting, understan d in g is a m atter
o f life and d eath ,” said Leni
K irkm an, a sp o k esw o m an at
U niversity H ospital in San A n
tonio, T exas w here interpreters
in A sian languages are needed.
C yraC om , a T ucson, A riz.-
based language services p ro
vider, recently o pened an inter
preter c e n te r in Las C ru ces,
N .M ., ta p p in g th e S p a n is h
sp e a k in g p o p u la tio n o f th e
M esilla V alley to fill the need
fo r in te rp re te rs in h o sp ita ls
across the country.
S o m e h o sp itals are tak in g
extra steps to attract bilingual
em ployees.
At Parkland M em orial H os
pital in D allas, w orkers are e li
gible fo r incentive pay if they
speak an o th er language, said
hospital spokesw om an L ynsey
Purl. P arkland and the public
health system in H ouston both
offer in-house Spanish m edical
Barbara Rayes assists a nurse in discharging Jaime Garcia (left) by translating between the nurse and Garcia's parents. Rayes is the coordi
nator for Spanish Interpreters at Phoenix Children's Hospital. (AP photo)
term inology classes.
C ryaC om provides services
in 150 different languages. If a
patient goes into a hospital and
officials there d o n ’t recognize
the language, they can pick up a
phone to access the voice-acti
vated language id en tification
function.
Several services o ffe r inter
pretation o v e r the telephone, a
great help to em erg en cy Dr.
A nthony V ita at the M edical
C en ter o f M cK inney. He has
access to S panish-speaking staff
at his hospital but finds that the
phone services are som etim es
m ore efficient.
“ S om etim es if it’s a big em er
gency and (a patient is) w heeled
in there, you d o n ’t have tim e to
use that,” V ita said. “ Y ou have
to pull som eone in to interpret.”
For im m igrant adults w ho
d o n 't speak E nglish w ell, c h il
dren are som etim es the only
o p tio n , said K evin H endzel,
spokesm an for the A m erican
T ranslators A ssociation.
E u g en iaC h ien , 29, had to tell
her grandfather in M andarin that
he h a d c h ro n ic liv e r c a n c e r
w hen she w as 17 years old.
But children face heavy pres
sure in those situations and som e
tim es m isinterpret im portant in
form ation because they a re n 't
trained in m edical term inology,
H endzel said.
State health officials in C ali
fornia and N ew Y ork are now
considering a plan to encourage
health care facilities to seek pro
fessional interpreters and d is
courage the use o f children.
Intel Co-workers Recruit Diverse Workforce
N etw ork o f A frican A m erican m ath, sc ie n c e and te c h n o lo g y .
“ R eaching out into the c o m
E m ployees at Intel O regon.
Participating students are also m unity is a key goal at Intel
T h e stru c tu re d p ro g ra m w as given inform ation about Intel O reg o n ,” said C orey B ullard, a
e sta b lish e d in 199 9 to help stu scholarship and internship pro local netw ork m em ber. “ U rban
d e n ts u n d e rsta n d th e ir c a re e r gram s.
U pload is a rew arding w ay to do
an d e d u c a tio n a l o p tio n s and
In the p ro g ra m 's first year, th a t.”
C o lle g e s tu d e n ts T a m a m e m p o w e r th em to c h o o se and 10 students from Jefferso n High
M ost re c e n tly , U rban U p
W a ritu , C e d ia J a b b e , M att p u r s u e th e ir f u tu r e c a r e e r School participated. D uring the lo ad has fo c u se d on th e a s
M c C a u le y
and
T r in id a d p a th . S o m e o f the p ro g ra m 's 2005-06 school year, three high p e c ts o f e n tre p re n e u rs h ip as
A lvarez-A g u irre are the latest fe a tu r e s a re s k ills tra in in g schools, B enson, Jefferson and stu d e n ts fo llo w the p ro c e ss o f
beneficiaries o f the U rban U p w o rk sh o p s, jo b sh adow s, guest De La Salle, w ith a total o f 21 c re a tin g th e ir ow n b u sin e ss.
load p ro g ram created by the s p e a k e rs , an d e m p h a s is on students, participated.
T e a m s d e v e lo p e d p ro to ty p e s o f new te c h n o lo g y p ro d u c ts
and learned about supply chai n,
p
u rc h a s in g , m a rk e tin g , and
A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything!
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R ecognizing that a diverse
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