What are the responsibilities and job description for the Sr. Interpreter/Translator (**Bilingual - English/Arabic**) - PRN (As Needed)- DC position at Children's National Medical Center?
The Sr. Interpreter/Translator will provide language interpretation services to patients, families, and staff in critical, acute,
or chronic medical situations as needed. The Sr. Interpreter/Translator will provide services in person, telephonically, or via
video remote interpreter to assist patients and families in their interactions throughout the hospital. This person will assist
their manager in program knowledge and initiatives.
Minimum Education
Bachelor's Degree or equivalent years of experience. (Required)
Master's Degree (Preferred)
Minimum Work Experience
2 years Experience as a medical interpreter in a clinical setting (Required)
Required Skills/Knowledge
Bilingual Language Skills
Fluency in English and Arabic
Highly proficient in medical terminology
Required Licenses and Certifications
Certification in Medical Interpretation preferred or required within 1st year of employment. 1 Year (Required)
Applicants must have completed 40 hour minimum training on Community of Medical Interpretation Skills (Required)
Functional Accountabilities
Eliminates Language Barriers to Patient Care
- Facilitate communication among patients, families and staff
- Interpret directly and accurately, without omissions, addition or interference with communication
- Manage assignments independently without close supervision
- Set limits appropriately; maintain professional boundaries as interpreter; maintain patient, family and staff rights to
confidentiality privacy - Maintain professional role and sensitivity during critical medical and/or psychological situations; respect all parties in the
discussion and their individual roles - Abide by Interpreter Code of Ethics
- Demonstrate accurate, clear and timely verbal and written communication
- Provide sight translation of patient care related documents
- Provide document translation of a limited list of patient related materials
Promotes Appropriate Utilization of Interpretation Services by Staff
- Educate staff in the process of how to appropriately request interpretation services
- Communicate with staff about staff needs and patient/family needs
- Work closely, interdepartmentally, providing recommendations by communicating information as requested and directed
by medical provider/ clinical staff - Partner with program staff to share best practices and to ensure cultural and linguistic requirements are met
- Advocate for patients/families with staff to facilitate continuity of care
- Provide sound recommendations to departmental leadership to ensure adequate services to non-English speaking patients
and families
Contributes to a Well-Organize Program
- Help to ensure interpretation assignments are coordinated accurately, effectively and efficiently
- Maintain schedules and required logs/tracking system in order to track project progress and productivity
- Maintain departmental performance reports
- Manage time to maximize productivity
- Accurately document interpretation assignments in all systems and databases utilized and required by the program
- Facilitate the distribution, coordination, and assignment of day-to-day activities among fellow division staff and under the
guidance of the division leadership - Independently execute various administrative and clerical tasks within the division in support of day-to-day operations
- Proactively engage with and leverage multiple hospital systems to enhance support for divisional or daily operational
function - Assist with coordination and completion of projects (e.g., use periodic checks to assess and track the progress of a
project's timeline and/or performance - Apply substantive knowledge in order to assist and represent manager thoroughly in the scope, diversity, and complexity of
project and organizational commitments - The individual in this role may assume additional job duties beyond those outlined in this job description
Organizational Accountabilities
Organizational Commitment/Identification
- Partner in the mission and upholds the core principles of the organization
- Committed to diversity and recognizes value of cultural/ ethnic differences
- Demonstrate personal and professional integrity
- Maintain confidentiality at all times
Customer Service
- Anticipate and responds to customer needs; follows up until needs are met
Teamwork/Communication
- Demonstrate collaborative and respectful behavior
- Partner with all team members to achieve goals
- Receptive to others' ideas and opinions
Performance Improvement / Problem Solving
- Contribute to a positive work environment
- Demonstrate flexibility and willingness to change
- Identify opportunities to improve clinical and administrative processes
- Make appropriate decisions, using sound judgment
Cost Management/Financial Responsibility
- Use resources efficiently
- Search for less costly ways of doing things
Safety
- Speak up when team members appear to exhibit unsafe behavior or performance
- Continuously validate and verify information needed for decision making or documentation
- Stop in the face of uncertainty and takes time to resolve the situation
- Demonstrate accurate, clear and timely verbal and written communication
- Actively promote safety for patients, families, visitors and co-workers
- Attend carefully to important details - practicing Stop, Think, Act and Review in order to self-check behavior and performance