The role of healthcare interpreters

To understand the functions and impacts of interpreters in healthcare settings, researchers have proposed various approaches and typologies to conceptualize interpreters and interpreter roles. This chapter first explores the historical development of interpreter roles, examining the continuum of roles interpreters interactively negotiate and construct as they manage their tasks, identities, and relationships in interpreter-mediated interactions. By examining the strengths and weaknesses of conceptualizing interpreter performances as role performances, the author then introduces the typology of interpreter types proposed by the Model of Bilingual Health Communication (BHC model). Next, the chapter describes the wide range of interpreters available in healthcare settings (i.e., professional interpreters, bilingual medical professionals, and nonprofessional interpreters) in order to synthesize and summarize the latest findings on the unique characteristics and diverging impacts of different types of interpreters. Finally, the author proposes future research directions for theory development and practice implications.