A Coordinator Between Patients And Doctors

Due to the different background between doctors and patients and their specialrelations, medical interpreters play a special role in medical interpreting. They face moredifficulties and risks than other interpreters, thus working under more pressure mentally andphysically.This report is completed based on the author’s real medical interpreting experience. Bytranscribing live recording, the author adopts the text analysis method to study thecommunicative characteristics of medical interpreting so as to discuss the role of medicalinterpreters. The author believes that medical interpreters act as the coordinator betweendoctors and patients, which differs from that of other kinds of interpreters. Moreover, theauthor interviews other medical interpreters and makes an attempt to summarize theiropinions about medical interpreting and the role of medical interpreters as the coordinator.In this report, the author emphasizes the analysis of two parts: the role of medicalinterpreters and medical interpreters’ role as the coordinator. In the first part, the authorgives a brief description of the interpreting task. In the second part, the author analyzes theroles of medical interpreters. In the third and fourth part, based on the analysis ofinterpreting text, the author expresses the viewpoint that medical interpreters act as thecoordinator between doctors and patients. The author hopes that this report can be areference for future medical interpreters in helping them better understand the role ofmedical interpreters and providing better interpreting services.