Nurses as interpreters?

This article examines the challenges of societal multilingualism and language barriers for communication in the context of medical services in Germany. Although there is evidence that ad-hoc-interpreting may cause communication problems, bilingual employees are often engaged in communication between German doctors and non-native patients in German hospitals. It is suggested that bilingual workforce may be used to facilitate communication given that adequate training for ad-hoc-interpreters is available. Therefore, the article discusses several approaches to training for medical interpreters and outlines contents and methods of interpreter training for bilingual hospital employees.