Bilingual Health Communication ─ Working With Interpreters in Cross-cultural Care

This book focuses on interpreter-mediated medical encounters and focuses primarily on the phenomenon of bilingual health care. It highlights the interactive and coordinated nature of interpreter-mediated interactions. Elaine Hsieh has put together over 15 hours of interpreter-mediated medical encounters, interview data with 26 interpreters from 17 different cultures/languages, 39 health care providers from 5 clinical specialties, and surveys of 293 providers from 5 clinical specialties. The depth and richness of the data allows for the presentation of a theoretical framework that is not restricted by language combination or clinical contexts. This will be the first book of its kind that includes not only interpreters’ perspectives, but also providers’ needs and perspectives.

Provider-Patient Communication in Bilingual Health Care presents an opportunity to lay out a new theoretical framework related to bilingual health care and connects the latest findings from multiple disciplines. This volume lays out future research directions that promise development for both theory and practice in the field.

Elaine Hsieh is the 2015-2016 Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar and an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Communication at the University of Oklahoma.