Chapter 3 in the Culture, Community and Cyberspace text outlined several ways in which we can help optimize international information systems. This discussion led me to start thinking about how we can use some of this information in the translation of patient education in healthcare.
I work in a hospital that sees a lot of patient from different countries, some of which do not speak English. Not too surprisingly, often the children can speak better English than their parents, but we ca not depend on the kids to get the correct message to their parents. In these cases we use translator to talk directly with the parents. The quality of translator varies, but most of them are versed in medical terminology and are native speakers of the language being translated.
The spoken language translation system works pretty efficiently, but translating written information is more costly and more difficult to provide to these patients and their families. To help this process, it would be an interesting exercise to create an information system that could then be used as the content source for translating the patient education. To avoid some of the pitfalls that the authors note, care must be taken to choose terms that will be identifiable in several languages. This helps to organize the information system in a way that is accessible to people from different cultures.
In writing the actual documents, care must also be taken to write culturally accurate texts. In chapter 10, the authors make mention of high or low context societies, specific or diffuse cultures, and collectivist or individualist cultures. Taking these differences, and the organizational tips into account, will make it easier and less confusing to communicate with people who do not speak English in a time that is undoubtedly stressful already.
Minnesota State bridges to the world 