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LANGUAGE BARRIERS: "Language Barriers to Healthcare in the United States," NEJM

Posted by Anny Zhang on Apr 7, 2015 10:00:00 PM

 Read full article here

This is a comprehensive article published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on language barriers in the medical field.

Some particularly impactful examples of mistranslation:

"One interpreter, mistranslating for a nurse practitioner, told the mother of a seven-year-old girl with otitis media to put (oral) amoxicillin “in the ears.”"

"In another case, a Spanish-speaking woman told a resident that her two-year-old had “hit herself” when she fell off her tricycle; the resident misinterpreted two words, understood the fracture to have resulted from abuse, and contacted the Department of Social Services (DSS). DSS sent a worker who, without an interpreter present, had the mother sign over custody of her two children."

Topics: Insights, mistranslation, language barriers, malpractice, misinterpretation

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