Takahiro Kiuchi
President and Chairperson of the Steering Committee of Japan Society for Healthcare Interpreting Studies/Department of Health Communication, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
Kie Kawauchi1), Shizuyo Yoshitomi2),Kaori Minamitani3)
1)Aomori University of Health and Welfare,2) Mukogawa Women’s University, 3) Rinku General Medical Center
Shinobu Hattori
Suzuka University of Medical Science
Healthcare interpreters (HCIs) in Japan are indispensable professionals that enable foreign patients with limited Japanese proficiency to understand symptoms in their native languages, and serve as intermediaries for Japanese-speaking medical professionals to provide safe and secure medical care to patients. Historically, HCIs emerged in the 1990s when they played roles as volunteers in foreign communities. With an increasing number of foreign visitors to Japan and more settlement of foreign residents in Japan, the demand for HCIs has increased over time, and the number of interpreters has grown throughout the country. HCIs are active in various forms of work, including registering with local organizations, being dispatched, and being stationed at medical institutions. Regarding the quality assurance of interpreters, there are various levels of expertise among interpreters, including certified interpreters who have completed training courses and those who are certified by academic societies or other organizations. The ways in which interpreters who have already performed healthcare interpreting services are certified as practitioners under the qualification update system warrant close attention, as these are related to guaranteeing status and improving treatment. While providing an overview of the current situation, we highlight various issues regarding the future of HCIs, including from their own perspectives.
Taeko Hamai
School of Nursing, University of Shizuoka
The code of ethics for interpreters in healthcare requires that the interpreter renders all messages accurately and completely, without adding, omitting, or substituting. However, while healthcare interpreters in both the United States and Japan emphasize medical interpreting standards, deviations from those standards have been observed, such as when clarifying ambiguous ideas or unfamiliar medical terminology for accurate interpretation, when the patient gives signs of not understanding, and when maintaining the relationship between the patient and the provider. Inappropriate actions have also been observed, such as interpreters controlling communication between physicians and patients. According to the code of conduct in the curriculum standards for healthcare interpreter training published by the Japan Medical Education Foundation, the term “fidelity and accuracy” means that interpreters should accurately understand and reflect the linguistic content of the original statement while accurately capturing the intent and cultural context, that any unclear meanings should be checked, and that no content should be omitted or guessed. To support foreign language-speaking patients, which requires consideration of patients who may have inadequate understanding of the language, anxiety, and vulnerability as a patient, it is important to discuss the scope and basis of intervention that are necessary for the role of an interpreter.
Takayuki Oshimi
Office of Medical Education, School of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare
In 2014, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare launched a project to improve the environment for international patients in response to the growing demand for healthcare interpreters with a certain level of guaranteed quality in the field of healthcare. Therefore, in 2017, the ministry entrusted the Japan Medical Education Foundation with creating a standardized curriculum for healthcare interpreters. The 12th item of the codes of conduct for healthcare interpreters stipulated in the standardized curriculum is “collaboration with other healthcare professionals.” To collaborate with other healthcare professionals, healthcare interpreters are required to work as healthcare team members. To make this possible, the presenter argues that all healthcare interpreters should fulfill the following three conditions: 1) continuing to study medicine, languages, and interpreting; 2) having sufficient skills and knowledge about accepting international patients and assisting in accepting patients with limited Japanese proficiency; and 3) taking responsibility for establishing a dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals, emphasizing “how the message was understood,” not “how the message was delivered.”
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