TITLE: Empathy, Interpreters, and Patient-Provider Communication

PRIMARY AUTHOR: TOYIN L. OLA

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR: KAYLA CAMPBELL

ABSTRACT: Research has shown that health outcomes can suffer when there is linguistic

discordance between healthcare providers and patients. The usage of medical interpreters is one

seemingly obvious solution to remedy this issue, but adding another individual can complicate a

communicative event. The present study wishes to explore the impact of interpreter-provider

communication on medical encounters. Given that empathy is a key variable in Health

Communication, the present study assed the degree of empathy that a sample of providers felt

toward interpreters. A novel measure patterned after the HP version of the Jefferson Scale of

Empathy was disseminated to both providers and interpreters, with each group receiving items

worded to reflect their respective points of view. The provider sample averaged a lower numeric

Empathy Score than the interpreter sample, where a lower numeric score indicated a more

empathetic attitude. Based on the widely varying scores achieved in the item-by-item analysis,

there seem to be fewer consensuses among interpreters about the nature of their role compared to

providers. The researchers suggest that nationally-recognized regulatory guidelines or

certifications should exist for medical interpreters in order to avoid confusion about interpreters’

role and improve interpreter-providers communication—and patient-provider communication by

extension.

KEYWORDS: patient-provider communication; empathy; interdisciplinary teamwork; medical

interpreters; interpreter-provider communication