Tolkning i sjukhusmiljö – vem tolkar för vem, när och varför?

Kirjoittajat

• Gun-Viol Vik Vasa universitet
• Jari-Pekka Välimaa Vasa universitet

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.129538

Avainsanat:

sjukvårdstolkning, tolkningspraxis, flerspråkighet

Abstrakti

The article focuses on healthcare interpreting in a hospital from the point of view of the staff. The research is based on an electronic questionnaire sent to the staff of a district hospital, Vaasa Central Hospital.
The aim of the study is to explore bilingual and interpreting practices in a hospital serving a population of 166,000, of whom 51% speak Swedish as their first language, 45% Finnish and 4% other languages. In the hospital both Finnish and Swedish are used in parallel in most functions.

According to the more than 500 respondents of the questionnaire, professional interpreters are often used for other languages than Finnish and Swedish, but up to 49% of the respondents report that they themselves have acted as interpreters, mostly in the language pair Finnish–Swedish. Of the hospital staff, doctors are the most often mentioned parties to situations where professional or non-professional interpreting is required, and they also act as interpreters themselves. This indicates a need for further discussion on existing practices and their ethical implications for the hospital as a bi- and multilingual organization.