Utilizing Multilingual Medical Students and the MedComm Platform to Address Language Barriers in Healthcare
The use of professional medical interpreters is considered the highest standard in medical interpretation. However, there is currently no universal, sustainable, and feasible medical interpretation service offered across McGill-affiliated healthcare sites. Our proposal includes three projects, each addressing the need for accessible interpretation services for patients with language barriers.
First, we would like to deliver a workshop on the basics of medical interpretation to all multilingual medical trainees at the McGill School of Medicine and study the impact of this workshop on students’ knowledge and self-perceived qualification to serve as an interpreter. Second, we would like to develop and implement a series of educational workshops for a wider range of healthcare trainees at the McGill Faculty of Medicine. These workshops will cover the basics of interacting with an interpreter in a medical appointment and will teach the participants how to access interpretation services. Lastly, we want to develop an online and mobile platform for requesting the services of trained student interpreters and conduct a pilot study to test the utility and feasibility of the platform in the clinical setting. Through our work, we also aim to build cultural competency among healthcare trainees by raising awareness of the issue of language barriers, their effects on linguistic minorities, and the importance of availability of professional interpreters.
Outputs:
Unknown. (2021, April). Interpretation Training for Multilingual Medical and Dental Students: A Pilot Study of a Virtual Interactive Workshop [Presentation]. Canadian Conference on Medical Education.
Unknown. (May, 2021). Virtual Interpretation Workshop for Multilingual Medical and Dental Students: A Pilot Study [Presentation], MASH/MJM Interprofessional Health Research Symposium.
Unknown. (December, 2021). MedComm Platform: A Tool for Managing Requests for Medical Interpreter [Poster presentation, virtual]. Annual 2021 Dialogue McGill Conference, virtual.
Unknown. (December, 2021). Working with Interpreters: Virtual Workshop for Medical and Dentistry Students [Poster presentation, virtual]. Annual 2021 Dialogue McGill Conference, virtual.
Unknown. (2022, April). Working with Interpreters: Virtual Workshop for Medical and Dentistry Students [Poster presentation]. Ontario Student Medical Education Research Conference.