Medical translation is one of the most important services in the translation industry. The reason for this is that medical translation makes it easy to offer medical service. It is important for a doctor to get the symptoms of a patient in a precise manner. This is the only way that they can prescribe the right treatment.
If there’s a breakdown in communication between a doctor and a patient, problems arise. These problems can sometimes end in fatalities. So, with such risks considered, it’s important that medical translators have certain skills. Here are some of these skills that can help you to be successful in medical translation.
Expert linguistic skills
Like with all other translation tasks, medical translation needs excellent language skills. This is because efficient translation needs to capture the exact message. The only difference is often the languages in which you put out the message. With expert knowledge of different languages, you’ll be able to get correct translations.
This is very important if you are to help doctors communicate better with patients.
Cultural awareness
A medical translator needs to understand the cultures of different languages. If you are to get exactly what a patient is trying to say you’ll need to understand cultural nuances. There are places where people consider mentioning certain things as taboos. To avoid mentioning taboo subjects, some people come up with different ways to say the same thing.
If as a medical translator you’re not aware of such cultural nuances it might end in bad service. You wouldn’t want to offend a patient or make them shy away from getting much-needed care.
Knowledge of medical terms
Let’s face it, medical terms are sometimes difficult as it is in English. This is why before you attempt to do medical translations; you need to know the medical terms. And, you have to do this in both your original language and the translation language. This needs a good level of dedication and effort to learn.
Knowledge of medical terms will also help you get accurate translations. This will help to improve communication between patients and doctors. The result here is that more patients will have better access to medical services.
Understand patient care
Knowing how to take care of patients is an important part of medical translation. With this knowledge, you’ll find it easier to deliver your translation services. From diagnosis to treatment and post-treatment care you need to know about the processes. This will not only help provide better services but also save time for the hospital.
It’s important for medical healthcare providers to offer service to many people. If you can help them save time using excellent medical translation you’ll be a rock star.
Show empathy
It’s not enough to show cultural sensitivity, you should also be able to show empathy to patients. In a nutshell, a medical translator should also have some sort of bedside manner. Your work as a medical translator is to bridge the language barrier between a doctor and a patient. For this to be efficient, you have to act as a doctor would.
If patients don’t think you understand them no amount of language can help. This is why you should show empathy as you take patient information. Empathy also goes a long way when it comes to delivering bad news. We all know that sometimes a diagnosis isn’t always great and you’ll need tact to give those.
Stick to ethics
Any health worker is bound by law and subscribes to some codes of ethics. For medical interpreters, these rules are no different. This is because as a medical translator you’ll have access to a lot of information. Most of this patient information is private and confidential.
If you share any of this information with anyone you’ll be in breach of the code of ethics. To avoid such career-ending situations, it’s of importance that you know how to handle information. Plus, you should also be able to treat all patients without favoring others over others. Being impartial will help you offer your services better.
Day Translations
At Day Translations, we recognize that you need to understand your patients to offer care. This is why we have a team of certified medical translators that can help you do that. What’s more, our team of translators adheres to HIPAA regulations. This will give you the peace of mind that you need to know that you are taking care of your patients.
More people accessing medical consults and services from all over the world. This is why you should consider getting qualified medical translator services. This will help you offer your services to even more people without language issues.