Doctor-patient communication in primary care with an interpreter: physician perceptions of professional and family interpreters.

Objective: This paper explores physician perceptions of the ways professional and family interpreters affect their performance of doctor-communication tasks described in the Calgary-Cambridge Framework.

Methods: Physicians' (19) encounters with patients (24) accompanied by an interpreter were videotaped. Stimulated recall was used to elicit each of the participants' perceptions of the clinical encounter. We analyzed transcriptions of the physician interviews using Atlas-ti software.

Results: Physicians perceived all communication tasks to be more difficult using an interpreter than when one was not needed. Physicians perceived family interpreters to be less skilled translators than professional interpreters. Physicians expected professional interpreters to serve as culture brokers at least some of the time. Although only some family interpreters were also caregivers, physicians assumed that all of them fulfilled caregiver roles.

Conclusion: With professional interpreters, physicians follow communication rules they were taught. In contrast, physicians act as though these rules are not relevant with family interpreters who they treat as caregivers.

Practice Implications: Guidelines to working with an interpreter should include directives on working with both professional and family interpreters, describing the similarities and differences with each type, and modifying the clinical encounter process to correspond to those attributes.