Over the Tipping Point: Using the Diagnostic Discourse of Standardized Patients to Educate Medical Interpreters

Teaching hospitals commonly film such interactions using standardized patients (SPs). Such films have been effectively used in classroom-based instruction with interpreters.

The novel use of SP films in an on-line learning environment is described herein, where discussion boards and worksheets supplanted traditional instruction methods. In this problem-based learning (PBL) approach, typical of medical education, graduate-level medical interpreting students became familiar with common diagnostic and treatment discourse. Students reported that this familiarity helped free their cognitive resources for planning and monitoring translations and other decisions on-the-job.