Clinicians’ collaboration in securing participation of vulnerable patients in interpreted interaction: a two-case comparison with migrant women in maternity settings

While healthcare interpreting studies have extensively discussed the interactive work done by interpreters and intercultural mediators in providing interpreting, much less has been said about what clinicians can do to facilitate interpreting provision. In this paper, we draw on two extended maternity check-ups recorded in Italian hospitals, each involving a clinician, a migrant expectant mother and an intercultural mediator. The consultations were selected from a corpus of over 300 interactions recorded in similar contexts, with English-speaking patients from West Africa, India and the Philippines, because they lend themselves to a two-case comparison. In the first, with a Nigerian patient, the mediator receives considerable help from the clinician and, although the mediator is not particularly experienced, interpreting is carried out reasonably well. In the second consultation, with an Indian patient, the clinician’s “doing” creates a number of obstacles to the mediator, who, although quite experienced, encounters various difficulties in the accomplishment of her interpreting work. We look at two types of sequences: a. question-answer sequences and b. clinician’s uptake of patient’s contributions. Our results indicate that certain clinicians’ practices, although possibly well-meaning, may in fact inhibit smooth rendition and consequently patients’ involvement in talk. Implications for training clinicians to work in interpreted settings are briefly discussed.