Student volunteers in the Brown Interpreter's Aide Program are breaking down linguistic barriers at Rhode Island Hospital. Student interpreters in the program help doctors and non-English speaking patients at the hospital communicate, in the process gaining medical experience and learning professional terminology.
Students in the program, which is run jointly by the Alpert Medical School and R.I. Hospital, work weekly four-hour shifts at the hospital throughout the year.
The program's interpreters allow non-English speaking patients to "express what they are really feeling," said Zoila Quezada, manager of minority medical affairs at the Med School.
Because non-English speakers constitute a growing percentage of the U.S. population, the need for interpreter services continues to increase at Providence hospitals, said Martha Aktchian, manager of interpreter services at R.I. Hospital. Many of the interpreters work with locals who speak Spanish or Portuguese.
The program stresses the importance of language proficiency, targeting bilingual freshmen fluent in those languages.
According to Laura Mainardi Villarino '10, one of the program's coordinators, many of these bilingual students know what it feels like not to be able to communicate with doctors based on their parents' experiences. Though many students involved in the program are pre-med, she stressed that most participants are drawn to the program because they want to volunteer in the Spanish-speaking community.
"It's a program for bilingual students who want to help," Mainardi Villarino said. "People go in for the right reasons."
Given the program's relatively small size - five undergraduate students participated last year - recruitment efforts, especially among current medical students, have increased. The leaders of the program are hoping to boost its membership to 10 or 15 volunteers this year.
Thirty-five students attended a recent info session for the program, but the time-intensive training process and the time commitment required discourage many students otherwise interested in the program.
Before students can become interpreter's aides, they must take a language exam focused on medical terminology and other standard vocabulary, then undergo training.
Nermarie Velazquez '10, the other coordinator of the program, said it was important to test for proficiency because members "need to be fluent, need to be comfortable."
Students then spend 16 hours shadowing a professional interpreter at the hospital. Most participants who join at the beginning of the academic year are able to interpret by themselves by December.
Because doctors treat interpreter's aides as hospital employees, the experience is "really interesting if you're pre-med," Velazquez said. "Being part of something like this, you see the end result of where you want to be."
Many students also find that the program helps their ability to communicate and understand different dialects, an important skill for future doctors, who will have to navigate an increasingly multi-lingual society.
"Every country has its own brand of Spanish," said Velazquez, a native of Puerto Rico. She remembered struggling to understand a mother from Guatemala who was telling the doctor her daughter would not drink formula, a word which translates as "passion fruit" in Puerto Rican Spanish.
David Harmon '11, who joined the program as a freshman, said that being an interpreter's aide also teaches students how to deal with the more "intense" aspects of communication, like telling patients they have a severe illness like cancer.
But many students also find the relief they bring to patients is especially meaningful. Mainardi Villarino said that during each shift at the hospital, she is "helping to erase cultural disparities" for patients.
