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!
s a le s.
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com m itm ent to diversity and
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R ecognizing that a diverse
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T he netw ork is also a p rofes­
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