It Takes Three: Medical Interpreters as Brokers in Patient-Doctor Relationships

The lack of Spanish-Speaking doctors in the U.S. necessitates the use of medical interpreters for many Spanish-speaking patients. The presence of an interpreter facilitates conversation, but also affects several ways in which the doctor can connect with their patient. This thesis analyzed 13 patient-doctor conversations among preferred Spanish-speaking patients: 7 conversations used an interpreter and 6 did not. The sociological concept of brokers was applied to these interviews. The interpreters played a formative role in mediating language, by controlling the exchange of information such as the description of symptoms by the patient or treatments suggested by the doctor. Findings suggest that interpreters may inhibit the formation of the patient-doctor relationship. The medical interpreters acting as brokers required doctors and patients to communicate within a different structure than the dyadic interaction that they were more used to. The findings in this study have several implications. Medical interpreters as brokers can be further studied through the use of patient surveys to identify how interpreters affect the patient’s perspective of their doctor. Also, studies can be done involving interpreters in other languages and cultures to see how interpreters affect those interactions. This information could be used to train interpreters and improve the formation of the patient-doctor relationship in interactions with interpreters