"Translation Brief: A Simple and Effective Tool for Developing Quality Non-English Materials"

Communication problems are the heart of most sentinel events – unexpected deaths and catastrophic injuries. Today, growing numbers of patients with limited English proficient (LEP) pose even greater communication challenges to provider organizations and the demand will only continue to grow. Linguistic competency - the capacity of organizations or individuals to communicate effectively with diverse audiences including those with LEP, low literacy levels, and persons with cognitive disabilities - is fast becoming an essential modern day competency for health care organizations in order to meet these increasing demands, while maintaining high quality of care standards and practices. Since, 2001 Hablamos Juntos, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded national initiative, has advance tested practical solutions to reduce language barriers to health care for patients who speak or understand little or no English. Drawing from the literature, lessons learned from studying translation errors and contributions from nationally recognized health leaders and language experts Hablamos Juntos is promoting the “Translation Brief” as part of a family of products within the More Than Words Tool-Kit Series. This tool is used to guide translation decisions such as identifying target audience, examining communication goals, and understanding purpose and situational features specified for the translation (i.e. function, audience, time, place, etc.). This session is for any health care organization, where effective communication is an important strategic goal and those looking to advance linguistic competencies. The session also discusses practical action steps that individual providers and organizations can take on their own or in conjunction with other stakeholders to improve care for all patients, especially LEP patients. It is also designed to enhance the effectiveness in procuring translation services and assessing quality of non-English materials.