Writing your own education copy? Have it translated
Writing your own education copy? Have it translated
Select frequently used pieces, and review
Institutions that create most of their education materials in-house often have them translated into the most common non-English languages spoken by patients. There are several ways to accomplish this task, with the decision often depending on the budget.
Translation can be costly. "The more difficult or rarer the language you are translating, the more the cost involved is going to be," says Kathy Ordelt, RN, CRRN, CPN, patient and family education coordinator at Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center in Atlanta.
This past year, Ordelt concentrated on translating teaching sheets into Spanish. Some of the work was completed by Ana Soler, a resource specialist for interpretation and translation services at the medical center. When the workload was too great, Soler worked with professional translation companies.
In the upcoming year, Ordelt hopes to translate teaching sheets into Vietnamese if she can get a grant to cover the cost. The translation and type setting for Vietnamese will be more costly than for Spanish, which is more common in the United States, says Ordelt.
When the infusion center at Providence Hospital of Alaska in Anchorage needed an Hispanic version of its Groshong Catheter Care Guide to meet patient needs, staff turned to the local high school. A student who is a native of Argentina earned extra credit translating the booklet. "After translating it and checking for the reading level, he took the brochure to the Mexican, Spanish, and Cuban communities to ensure he had the correct dialect," says Lee Stark, RN, BSN, patient education coordinator at the hospital.
Medical personnel at Mid-Florida Medical Services in Winter Haven are sometimes used to translating English materials into other languages. When using nonprofessional translators, note that the copy cannot always be translated word for word, warns Laurel Spooner, RN, BSN, education coordinator at the medical facility.
Also, be aware that translation software might not be the best way to translate copy either. The education department at Mid-Florida Medical Services purchased two English-to-Spanish translation software packages that proved worthless because the translations are too literal, she says.
While translation companies have professionals trained in the nuances of the translating process, it's important that they understand medical terminology as well, says Ordelt. When you outsource teaching sheets, make sure the company has certified medical translators, she advises. Also, certified legal translators should be used for translation of consent forms.
No matter who completes the translations, create a process for evaluating finished copy before it is used to teach patients, says Ordelt. At Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center, Soler checks Spanish material for grammatical errors. Medical information is reviewed by an expert at the hospital who speaks Spanish. A similar method will be used when the medical center begins translating Vietnamese materials.
At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, several instruction sheets for parents of patients were translated by professionals into Asian languages. To validate the information, family members are asked to demonstrate a skill by using the sheet as a guideline, says Linda Kocent, RN, MSN, patient-family education coordinator at the hospital.
The cost of translation makes it impossible to translate all English titles into Spanish at Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center. Therefore, Ordelt devised a method for selecting materials to translate. She polled staff on all units, asking them to rate the need for teaching sheets and consent forms. Materials rated "1" were a must-have. Materials given a rating of "2" were in the "frequently used, nice to have" category. If materials were used infrequently, they received a "3" rating. "We used the staff assessment to determine what materials we needed in Spanish. We will use the same method for the Vietnamese materials if we get the grant money," says Ordelt.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.