Provider Training: An Overview of Language Access - Part One

*This is not a CEU course offering. 

This course is Part One of Language Access Trainings.

In 2021, approximately 46 percent (20.8 million) of the 45 million immigrants ages 5 and older were Limited English Proficient (LEP). Immigrants accounted for 80 percent of the country’s 25.9 million LEP individuals. (Migration Policy March 2023). This population is less able to access health care and is at higher risk of adverse health outcomes. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Section 1557 mandate that interpreter services be provided for patients with limited English proficiency. This virtual course will be lecture-based and will review the role and responsibilities of professional healthcare interpreting and the legal risks of working with non-certified/qualified interpreters. Professional interpreters are superior to working with ad hoc interpreters (i.e., family, friends, or untrained staff). The course will cover national and state standards of practice, laws, ethics, and COVID-19 for healthcare providers working with healthcare interpreters.

PRO TIP: Allow yourself 1 hour and 20 minutes to watch the entire video in one sitting to more easily receive your certificate upon completion.

Instructor Bio: Maria Michalczyk, MA, RN

Maria Michalczyk has worked as a professional nurse and/administrator for five decades. She developed and managed both the medical interpreter program at Oregon Health Sciences University and the health care interpreter training program at Portland Community College (nations first community college offering).

Maria has been advocating for health care language access for over 30 years and contributed to the following seminal efforts: ASTM Workgroup; Oregon SB 790/law major contributor for credentialing of healthcare interpreters; National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (board member and founding member); Chair for the Governor’s Council on Healthcare in Oregon; Certification Commission on Healthcare Interpreters (commissioner and founding member); Oregon Health Care Interpreter Association (board member and President) and is now President Emeritus.

Instructor Bio: Dr. Sudge Budden MD, MBBS, FRCP (C), FAAP

I have practiced Developmental Pediatrics in Portland Oregon since 1979. I Founded and Directed the program at Legacy Emanual Hospital; currently known as Randall Children’s. I was on Pediatric faculty at OHSU as Director of the Neurodevelopmental program at CDRC. I was offered a position as Consultant to the Pediatric Neuro Developmental Program at Providence.   I have served as President of the Oregon Pediatric Society, and as a member the Oregon Medical Board. More recently (2019) OMB has mandated 1hr of Cultural Competency Education as a condition for renewal of all Licensees starting in the fall of 2023 renewal cycle.                                         

During the course of my practice, I have certainly witnessed population growth and the changing face of our population. This change in demographics has brought about major challenge to our practice of medicine in being able to communicate clearly with our patient’s families the diagnosis and treatment options for their child/relative. I personally have faced a number of challenges regarding language barriers not only in India where 16 major languages are spoken but also in Canada where French was a challenge along with other languages and in my travel experiences where language barriers limited my ability to communicate with families.  This explains my deep interest in acquiring Cultural Competency in medicine.