Fluency In Medical Terminology

Medicine is a complex and diverse field to work in. People who don’t work in a healthcare setting, medicine is a blur and the terminology that is used is even more confusing. “Medical terminology is the standardized means of communication within the healthcare industry. The importance of fluency in medical terminology, which applies to all hospital personnel, including allied healthcare professionals, cannot be overstated. Medical terminology eases clinical proceedings and enables everyone involved in the process of treatment and care to perform more efficiently for the patient’s benefit. Very often within the clinical environment, medical terminology is composed of abbreviations and understanding them makes documentation much faster and easier.”

“More than 25 million Americans speak English “less than very well,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and more than 60 million speak a language other than English at home. This population is the least likely to receive preventive care, have access to regular care, or be satisfied with their care. Patients with limited English proficiency are much more likely to have adverse effects from drug complications, poor understanding of diagnoses, low health literacy, and a greater risk of being misunderstood by their physicians.” (Juckett and Unger, 2014) One of the most critical part of medicine is passing down the correct information to the patients. Passing wrong information can lead to harmful outcomes or even death. The chances of passing down wrong information goes up when releasing information to people who don’t speak English as their primary language. Healthcare is a diverse population and the chances of meeting and treating patient from a country is high. Such incidences can be avoided by providing well qualified interpreters. Medical interpreters “Helps facilitate successful delivery of services to linguistically diverse

The challenge for medical interpreters is to correctly translate medical terminology to that specific language. Medical errors and misinterpretations can occur when the wrong information is passed down or words are converted wrong. Besides different interpreters for different languages and dialects, the interpreter can affect the outcome of the message. Sometimes family members and distance members of the family can service as translators and this can a problem because they don’t have the proper training and they themselves can’t translate the medical terminology. To avoid any medical misinterpretation, the best practice is to have trained and well qualified translators. “Trained health care interpreters can reduce liability, help ensure appropriate utilization, and increase client adherence and satisfaction with services. Trained interpreters help to assure effective communication between the client and provider, support effective use of time during the clinical encounter, and improve outcomes. The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care has published a comprehensive Glossary of Terms commonly used in the field of health care interpreting.” (Refugeehealthta.org,