Instructor Rodney Ramos created a personalized program at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) that offers a technical diploma in medical interpretation. The program accentuates culture, language capability and understanding variables in medical terminology.
After a lot of study and consultation, Rodney developed an annual
medical interpreter technical
program that he has taught for the last seven years at MATC.
By this time 18 students already completed the two-semester program that teaches not just fluency in the language, but also medical terminology, cultural sensitivity, dialectical differences among various Spanish-speaking countries, ethics, values and nonverbal communication skills.
With the increase of the Latino community and changing demographics, health care suppliers are challenged by the demand to provide professional health care interpreters, said Rodney Ramos.
Kristin Neitzel, the patient amenities and family services manager at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, agrees. Children's Hospital has five full-time and four part-time interpreters and 29 other interpreters that it brings in through a local company, Neitzel said. All but two of the interpreters speak Spanish, one speaks
Hmong (the
language spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos) and one is a
sign language interpreter.
