Hospital interpreting is hard: the truth of being a French interpreter in the NHS

In addition to being a French interpreter, I also do some lecturing in university to students of French and other foreign languages. Many of them all ask me what it is really like going into a hospital and interpreting for patients. This is a tough question to ask because each individual project is different. One thing which is sure, however, is that the job has some challenges. I will try to show this by sharing a story of my first ever interpreting assignment in an NHS hospital almost two decades ago…

As medical interpreter, you never know what you’ll face

It goes without saying that the medical setting is a hugely confidential environment – and rightly so! This does, however, pose a major challenge as an interpreter because you are rarely given access to any detailed information regarding the interpreting assignment ahead of the day.

For my very first project, the only information I was given was to attend the endoscopy department of the local hospital for a French patient. It’s a start, but endoscopy is a wide discipline and could involve any number of potential examinations.

Research, research and more research… versatility is essential when interpreting in hospital

The hallmark of a great interpreter – as I so often instil into my French interpreting students – is to have as much knowledge of terminology as possible in your luggage. When you are not out actively interpreting in hospitals, doctor’s surgeries or private clinics, you should be reading around new subjects and vacuuming up as much terminology and knowledge as possible – and this involves more than just watching endless episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on catch-up.

Nowhere was this more valuable that in the endoscopy department. When you realise that endoscopy could be an upper GI, a colonoscopy, a pouchoscopy, or a cystoscopy, you then begin to see just how much subject-specific medical terminology it is necessary to know as a professional interpreter.

The day of the appointment, I attended and it wasn’t long before I was called in to the appointment with my client. The nurse explained that he would be undergoing a cystoscopy to examine the inside of his bladder using a cystoscope.

A hospital interpreter should be seen without being overly present – like a glass wall

As a student of French interpreting, it was often said that a good interpreter should be seen without being overly present. This is referred to as being a glass wall in the profession. This particularly rings true within a hospital environment. Doctor appointments are a very personal and confidential event and it is never nice to have to share these sensitive details with someone. It requires a certain degree of compassion whilst keeping a friendly distance.

However, it is important that all parties know you are there. During our now infamous cystoscopy example, it is easy for the interpreter to leave a greater distance to respect the intimacy of the patient during this sort of procedure. But as the doctor told me on the day: if the patient wants to end the procedure, they need to be able to inform us in a language we understand at any time.

This one sentence has remained with me throughout my entire career to date as a certified medical interpreter. Remembering that you are there to do a very important job, whilst trying to keep your presence as respectful and as discrete as possible. A challenge almost as great as knowing every possible word in the medical dictionary…