Whose pain is it, anyway?

In healthcare encounters, when patients and providers do not speak the same language, an interpreter coordinates and enables communication. Given social mobility and displacement, the increase of technological developments and medical tourism, among other factors, inter-linguistic/cultural encounters are on the rise. 

Using content and discourse analysis, and a database of 392 healthcare provider-patient interviews mediated by interpreters, in this presentation we analyze interactions about pain intensity, measurement and management. We look at social factor impacting face-to-face as well as over the (video) phone consultations. Results demonstrate a variety of challenges faced by Spanish-speaking patients, English-speaking providers and Spanish-English interpreters who engage in measuring and describing pain with the use of a pain-rating scale. 

This interdisciplinary work has implications for professionals such as policy makers, educators, healthcare providers and interpreters working with diverse populations across languages and cultures.