Overview of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Professional and Child Interpreters for Limited English Proficiency Patients in General Health Care Situations

Patients from linguistically isolated households with limited English proficiency present a difficult challenge to health care providers. Accurate medical interpretation is vital to providing the highest quality health care and these patients require the assistance of an interpreter to understand and relay information to the provider. The two sources for interpretation assistance to be discussed are the patient's children and professional interpreters. The purpose of this paper is to review the advantages and disadvantages of using professional and child interpreters for patients from linguistically isolated households in general health care situations. Child interpreters may provide more effective assistance for patients with specific dialects; however, the disadvantages such as role reversal in the family are of greater concern. Professional interpreters also have disadvantages, for example concerns regarding patient confidentiality, but they have been determined to be the optimum choice, resulting in fewer errors in translation, higher patient satisfaction, and improved patient outcomes.