This theoretical-empirical thesis compares police interpreting theory with its practice. It has two aims: to establish to what degree court interpreters in the Czech Republic are aware of the theoretical principles and rules of court interpreting, and to determine how this theoretical knowledge is reflected in practice. The theoretical part of the thesis reviews specialised literature and ethical codes that concern court interpreting. Aside from an analysis and a thorough comparison of Czech and foreign ethical codes, this part of the thesis also presents scholarly works and research conducted in the field of court interpreting. The main focus is the role of the interpreter, which is crucial for the work of court interpreters but its definition it not always clear. The empirical part of the thesis takes the form of a qualitative-quantitative study. Two questionnaires were distributed to court interpreters and police officers in the Czech Republic. The questionnaire for interpreters aimed to verify whether, and to what degree, they are familiar with the theoretical principles of their profession and whether these principles apply in practice. This part of the questionnaire used mainly scenarios with open-ended questions, which were also accompanied by close-ended questions with responses based on a...

This theoretical-empirical thesis compares police interpreting theory with its practice. It has two aims: to establish to what degree court interpreters in the Czech Republic are aware of the theoretical principles and rules of court interpreting, and to determine how this theoretical knowledge is reflected in practice. The theoretical part of the thesis reviews specialised literature and ethical codes that concern court interpreting. Aside from an analysis and a thorough comparison of Czech and foreign ethical codes, this part of the thesis also presents scholarly works and research conducted in the field of court interpreting. The main focus is the role of the interpreter, which is crucial for the work of court interpreters but its definition it not always clear. The empirical part of the thesis takes the form of a qualitative-quantitative study. Two questionnaires were distributed to court interpreters and police officers in the Czech Republic. The questionnaire for interpreters aimed to verify whether, and to what degree, they are familiar with the theoretical principles of their profession and whether these principles apply in practice. This part of the questionnaire used mainly scenarios with open-ended questions, which were also accompanied by close-ended questions with responses based on a...

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The aim of this study is to examine how counselors within youth and sexual health clinics in Stockholm experience conversations about sensitive issues through interpreters. The study is based on eight qualitative interviews, five with counselors and three with interpreters. The theoretical framework is based on selected concepts from the theory of symbolic interactionism which are the following: definition of the situation, social interaction, symbols, activity and the present. In addition to these concepts we have used to selected models from a communication theory: the barrier model and filter- and noise model. The results of the study show that counselors, in order to have conversations about sensitive issues, needs to be responsive, open. This is a balance between showing the youth that sensitive issues can be spoken of and respecting the youths’ limits. The results also show that the interaction between counselors and interpreters is complex, due to many factors and that most of the counselors experience it as a troublesome but necessary part of their work. The study also reveals a problematic situation caused by lack of knowledge about interpreters’ education, division of responsibilities and the lack of interpreters’, especially with the right education for this context.

Background: In Namibia there are a lot of different native languages even if the official language is English. Since communication is an important tool for nurses and studies about communication across language barriers mostly is done in western countries, there is need for more knowledge regarding the nurse's experience with language barriers in multilingual and multicultural context, like Namibia. Aim: To describe the experiences of Namibian nurses caring for patients who speak another native language. Method: Qualitative interviews were held with four nurses and one student nurse at Katutura State hospital in Windhoek, Namibia. Results: Two themes with subthemes were identified in the results. The first theme, Establishing the patient-nurse relationship, describes the importance of trust for communication and what the interviewees found important when creating a bond with the patient. The other theme, Establishing the communication, describes the importance of interpretation and how they tackled the language barrier. Conclusion: When meeting a patient with another native language it is of great importance to establish trust with the patient and that interpreters are used. The use of sublingual nurses, who found interpreting to be a natural part of their work, was beneficial.

Huge natural disaster events can be so devastating that they often overwhelm human rescuers and yet, they seem to occur more often. The TRADR (Long-Term Human-Robot Teaming for Robot Assisted Disaster Response) research project aims at developing methodology for heterogeneous teams composed of human rescuers as well as ground and aerial robots. While the robots swarm the disaster sites, equipped with advanced sensors, they collect a huge amount row-data that cannot be processed efficiently by humans. Therefore, in the frame of the here presented work, a semantic interpreter has been developed that crawls through the raw data, using state of the art object detection algorithms to identify victim targets and extracts all kinds of information that is relevant for rescuers to plan their missions. Subsequently, this information is restructured by a reasoning process and then stored into a high-level database that can be queried accordingly and ensures data constancy.

Background: Effective communication is vital to establish a patient-nurse relation and in order for the nurse to deliver good nursing care. Mistakes and errors are more frequent when there is a language barrier between the nurse and the patient. Method: The study was made as a qualitative interview study with a phenomenological analysis. Aim: Describe how Malaysian nurses deal with language barriers during meetings with patients with another language. Result: To deliver good nursing care to patient with another language could be difficult depending on what strategies the nurses used: how nurses experience the effectiveness of non-verbal communication, how interpreters were used and who interpreted during the patient meeting, strategies nurses used when interpreter was not an option, nurses’ interest in learning about the patient’s culture. Conclusion: To overcome language barriers is complex and often more than one strategy is needed. Patient safety is compromised when there were language barriers between the nurse and the patient.

This research study was designed to improve the quality of health care received by the Hispanic population in northeast Tennessee. After reviewing past research, it is evident that the Hispanic population reports a lower level of health care satisfaction and a greater number of health disparities. Although attempts to reconcile this problem have included implementing regulations and guidelines on the cultural competency of and the provision of language services by health care providers, no measurable improvement has been noted. To positively impact this pervasive problem, the focus must shift away from how health care agencies can affect health care for Hispanics, and toward how health care providers can improve patient care. It is the responsibility of health care providers to provide quality care to all patients, regardless of their culture, race, or language. By interviewing three primary care nurse practitioners who serve a large Hispanic population in northeast Tennessee, it became evident that even with a language aide present, barriers to caring for this population still exist, although these barriers are not unsurmountable. Through years of experience, these providers have developed skills that have improved communication with, and health-related outcomes of, Hispanic patients, but this type of care should not be impacted by nurse practitioner turnover. Each provider agreed that nursing students’ education and opportunities to work with diverse populations while in basic nursing education programs must be improved, so that when students graduate, they can become part of the solution to this ongoing problem.

Research indicates that general and mental healthcare services have been, and continue to be, underutilized by racial and ethnic minorities. Studies point to the language gap between limited English proficiency (LEP) individuals and mental-health clinicians as one of the factors in perpetuating that gap. Despite the legal and professional mandates that require professionals in healthcare to provide and use language interpreters in giving care, psychologists rarely make use of professional interpreters when conducting psychotherapy. Most clinicians have little experience providing mental-health treatment across differences in language, and it is supposed that clinicians usually receive little or no training on how to address those differences. This study involved a national survey of all APA-accredited programs to ascertain how student trainees are currently being prepared to work with language interpreters in professional training programs and to evaluate potential barriers to the implementation of training guidelines for use in those programs. Findings indicated that several instructors are addressing the use of language interpreters through a variety of pedagogical approaches. Guidelines for clinical practice with interpreters were also evaluated and ranked so as to establish consensus on the necessary competencies. Implications for instructors are also included.

Nearly 13.8 million Hispanics in the United States speak English "less than very well." This has important implications for the field of clinical neuropsychology. Patients who do not speak English fluently are being increasingly referred for neuropsychological services, and many of these individuals are assessed with the aid of language interpreters. However, whether or how the use of an interpreter has an effect on neuropsychological test scores is not known. For lack of a better alternative, it generally is assumed that the test data obtained through an interpreter are a valid indication of the patient's cognitive functioning, but with almost no empirical support, this assumption appears tenuous at best. The effect of an interpreter, in fact, could be substantial, making this issue all the more deserving of rigorous investigation. The primary objective of the current study was to determine whether using an interpreter to conduct neuropsychological testing of monolingual Spanish speakers had an effect on the neuropsychological test scores. Participants included 40 neurologically normal Spanish-speakers with limited English proficiency, ages 18-65 years, (M= 39.65, SD =13.91) who completed a 2-hour battery of verbal and nonverbal neuropsychological tests both with and without an interpreter. The condition of test administration was counterbalanced across participants and test score differences between the two conditions were compared. Results indicated that use of an interpreter significantly affected mean scores for some neuropsychological tests from the verbal modality. Also, variability in test scores generally was higher when an interpreter was used, significantly so for one verbal test. Results of this study contribute to the extant literature concerning the use of interpreters to facilitate neuropsychological testing of individuals with limited English proficiency. Specifically, they indicate that neuropsychologists should avoid interpreter use and refer patients to bilingual clinicians whenever possible. For situations in which this may not be a viable option, neuropsychologists should limit their test batteries to measures that require minimal reliance on the interpreter. Tests that rely almost entirely on interpreter skills for administration and scoring - such as the Vocabulary and Similarities subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) - should probably not be used. Larger confidence intervals should be used when interpreting observed scores from interpreter-mediated neuropsychological tests.