Healthcare Interpreting Certificate of Achievement

The curriculum for the Healthcare Interpreter (HCI) Certificate is designed to train bilingual/bicultural students to become linguistically and culturally competent interpreters who can function effectively and efficiently in healthcare settings. Through academic preparation, practical skills training and service in community based healthcare settings, certificate candidates learn interpreting skills in English and a Language Of Service (LOS). BothCalifornia and National Standards of Practice are included in the instruction.Graduates find employment interpreting in hospitals, clinics, or freelancing for remote and onsite interpreting agencies. This program complies with all training standards described by the National Council for Interpreting in HealthCare. 

Up to four different languages are offered each semester depending on the number of applicants. A maximum of fifteen students (who share the same language-pair) will be admitted during any semester. Upon completion of the certificate and the HLTH 84 course, students would have completed a minimum of 350 hours of education and training.

Weanticipate that the annual number of students completing the HCI certificatewill be between 40-50.  The estimate isbased on enrollment data for the past two years, Fall 2016 – Spring 2018:

 

Enrollment Data, Fall 2016-Spring 2018 Required Courses for
Course Number	Number of Sections	Number of Students
HLTH 80	4	104
HLTH 81	4	81
HLTH 82	4	82

 

Qualified students are accepted into the program from our one-day introductory course,HLTH 84, and through an application process. Every semester we offer three sections of HLTH 84 – one for Spanish, one for Chinese languages (Cantonese and Mandarin), and a third for all other languages.  We also offer several sections of this course during summer session. These introductory classes are where we assess each student’s linguistic readiness for our program, get an idea of how many students are qualified to enter the program, and gain insight into the demand for a specific languages that are of lesser diffusion.  From the applicant pool, we are then able to determine which languages to offer each semester.  Between Fall 2016 to Spring 2018, 324 students took this introductory course. 

 

The mission of the Health CareInterpreting (HCI) Certificate Program is to develop linguistically and culturally competent interpreters who can function effectively and efficiently in healthcare settings.

 

To enroll in the Healthcare Interpreting Certificate, students must complete a pre-requisite course Health 84: Intro to Interpreting in Health Care, a 0.5 unit, one day course that introduces bilingual students to the field of healthcare interpreting.  In the class students are introduced to theCalifornia HCI Standards, and explore the roles, scopes and practice of healthcare interpreters. The HCI program will be explained and linguistic proficiencies will be assessed at the end of class.

 

Upon successful completion of the program students will be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes:

1.    Interpret accurately between English and LOS in various healthcare settings; integrating appropriate medical terminology in both languages and enhancing communication between a provider and patient during routine and complex medical encounters

2.    Manage the flow of communication through a variety of interpreting techniques

3.    Apply and demonstrate the four principle roles of the interpreter in healthcare as described in professional HCI standards of practice

4.    Bridge cultural gaps and assist Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients and providers to appreciate diverse cultural beliefs and practices regarding health and healthcare

5.    Demonstrate and apply appropriate ethical standards in Healthcare Interpreting

6.    Assess and integrate professional skills necessary for employment in the HCI field. 

HLTH 80	Interpreting in Health Care I	6.5	S1
HLTH 81	Interpreting in Health Care II	6.5	S2
HLTH 82	Professional Skills for Healthcare Interpreters	3	S2
HLTH 300	Work Experience in Health and Social Services	1-4	S2

 

Course	Units	Sequence
HLTH 80: Interpreting in Health Care I	6.5	The first in the series of foundational classes
HLTH 81: Interpreting in Health Care II	6.5	Must be taken after completing HLTH 80
HLTH 82: Professional Skills for Healthcare Interpreters	3.0	Concurrently or after completing HLTH 81
HLTH 300:  Work experience in Health and Social Services	1.0 - 4.0	Concurrently or after completing HLTH 81
Total Units	17.0 - 20.0

 

Total number of units = 17 – 20

 

Note total units to be completed for HLTH 300 are based upon the number of work experience hours for internship.  The majority of students will finish their internship within 60 hours (1 unit). However, students who speak languages of lesser diffusion could potentially take much longer to meet the internship requirement, which is providing a minimum of twenty interpreting encounters (15 minutes in length). 

 

CCSF has offered the HCI certificate since 1998. Every semester our hospital partners and language service agencies look to us to train new qualified cultural competent healthcare interpreters to meet the growing demand for linguistic access. In particular, they have noted the need for interpreters that speak languages of lesser diffusion (e.g. Arabic, Russian, Farsi, Vietnamese, Tigrinya, etc). Trained interpreters are critical to ensuring patients receive quality care which translates to better health outcomes.

Results from our Labor Market Information Report for Interpreters and Translators (completed in fall 2018), shows that there is one college, Laney College, in the Bay Region issuing an average of 3 awards annually for Legal and Community Interpretation and no colleges in the Mid-Peninsula sub-region. The Labor Market Information Report also states that there is an undersupply of Interpreters and Translators. The gap is 480 students annually in the Bay region and 190 in the Mid-Peninsula sub-region.