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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1477965
Working Experiences of Remote Interpreters in Health Care Settings -Insights from Austria and Germany
Provisionally accepted- 1 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBG), Vienna, Austria
- 2 Clinical Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergology and Endocrinology, University Clinic for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 3 Institute for Ethics and Law in Medicine, University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 4 Institute for Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 5 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Introduction The rise in linguistically diverse patient populations has introduced significant challenges in healthcare due to language barriers. Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) has emerged as a cost-effective solution in healthcare settings. However, its impact on interpreters, particularly the specific enabling and hindering factors from their point of view, remains underexplored. For example, in some studies, VRI interpreters report higher stress and job dissatisfaction. We hypothesize that interpreters' work experience and supervision attendance mitigate negative effects. We tested this hypothesis using a quantitative approach. Additionally, we analyzed qualitative data to uncover more enabling and hindering factors. Methods A sample of 87 interpreters working in Austria and Germany was included in this multi-methods study. Stress, job dissatisfaction, work experience, and supervision were analyzed using correlations and group comparisons. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed using thematic content analysis to identify enabling and hindering factors, with network analysis exploring their interconnections. Results Longer work experience correlated with lower stress. Supervision had no significant effect on stress or job satisfaction. Thematic content analysis identified 21 factors affecting VRI: While VRI enhances efficiency and emotional distance, interpreters face technical problems and difficulties arising from the lack of physical presence. Network analysis confirmed that VRI settings are characterized by a close interplay between these enabling and hindering factors. Discussion Strategies for using VRI can be derived from these data. VRI is an efficient alternative to in-person interpreting, with challenges that can be mitigated. Training healthcare personnel in handling VRI and optimizing VRI conditions can contribute to better healthcare outcomes.
Keywords: video remote interpretation, Medical interpreting, stress, job dissatisfaction, Language barrier, Quantitative Methods, qualitative methods
Received: 14 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Klomfar, Teufel, Gerger, Kletečka-Pulker, Doppler, Eitenberger and Völkl-Kernstock. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Sophie Klomfar, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBG), Vienna, Austria
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