Self-Assessed Competency at Working with a Medical Interpreter Is Not Associated with Knowledge of Good Practice

Patricia Hudelson, Thomas Perneger, Véronique Kolly and Noëlle Junod Perron

PLOS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, issue 6, 1-6

Abstract: Background: Specific knowledge and skills are needed to work effectively with an interpreter, but most doctors have received limited training. Self-assessed competency may not accurately identify training needs. Purposes: The purpose of this study is to explore the association between self-assessed competency at working with an interpreter and the ability to identify elements of good practice, using a written vignette. Methods: A mailed questionnaire was sent to 619 doctors and medical students in Geneva, Switzerland. Results: 58.6% of respondents considered themselves to be highly competent at working with a professional interpreter, but 22% failed to mention even one element of good practice in response to the vignette, and only 39% could name more than one. There was no association between self-rated competency and number of elements mentioned. Conclusions: Training efforts should challenge the assumption that working with an interpreter is intuitive. Evaluation of clinicians' ability to work with an interpreter should not be limited to self-ratings. In the context of large-scale surveys, written vignettes may provide a simple method for identifying knowledge of good practice and topics requiring further training.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0038973 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 38973&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0038973

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038973

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().