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Keywords

medical missions, interpreters, cross-cultural communication, pre-field training

Abstract

In the debate over the effectiveness of short-term medical missions (STMM), the role of interpreters has received cursory attention. However, the perceived quality of care and the actual care that patients receive, and therefore their receptivity to the organization and the presentation of the gospel by faith-based STMMs, hinges greatly on employing trained interpreters who can reliably communicate on behalf of all parties involved. Each barrier to cross-cultural communication —verbal, non-verbal, and cultural—can and should be addressed to have a successful mission outreach; providing adequate training for all participants in STMM, especially for interpreters, is critical to mediate the communication goals of providers and patients across languages and cultures. The guidelines included in this article provide STMM organizations the means to evaluate what they are doing well with respect to their utilization of interpreters and ways in which they might be able to improve according to the unique contexts in which they serve.

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