A medical student from Nijmegen has started a project where medical students are deployed as interpreter. With this, the expanding group of immigrants in the Netherlands can get good health care.

Immigrant patients often take a family member or acquaintance to the hospital and ask them to translate. The relationship these people have with the patient can make it hard for them to transfer the message correctly. On top of that, they often do not have much knowledge of medical terminology. The telephone interpreter can be an alternative. But as soon as asylum seekers get a permit, that option is not financially compensated anymore. Besides that, emotional conversations are harder on the phone.

Sümeyye Sezre thought is what time for a more solid solution. ‘When a neurologist told me about the increase in communication problems between doctors and immigrant patients, I was intrigued.’ In December, Sezer, who is of Turkish origin, and the neurologist started recruiting medical students who could act as interpreter. Already, 25 students have applied. They will be an addition to an existing project, the buddy pool, co-organized by Radboud UMC Islamic mental caretaker Saïda Aoulad Baktit.

The students will not have the same role as the buddies: interpreting is the main task. The more complex cases, where a lot of emotions are involved, will be guided by Baktit and the buddy-project coordinator, Bouchra Jabry.

Training
To ensure the quality of the student interpreters, the ones that have applied will get a course, provided by the coordinators of the buddy pool. ‘Whether someone is a good interpreter, is something we cannot see during the course yet. Because of that, we will organize reunion days, during which the buddy pool provides the students with feedback and helps with problems they face’, says Sezer. / Wiep de Ligny