MiTio's 1st Annual Medical Interpreting Graduation Ceremony

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When: May 20, 2023 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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Transcript of 1st Graduation:

Dr. Lee (00:00:01):

Welcome's to MiTio’s first annual graduation ceremony. Today is May 21st, 2022. And this is Dr., the order of Ceremony is as follow. First, we'll have a national anthem, followed by a brief history of by myself. Then we will present our founders Visual Language Pro and game in healthcare. We will then introduce the graduating class representative and students in address, followed by the introduction of the guest, speaker and commencement address by Cindy Wrote, Author of Company in Small Right. Last thing will have the, the presentation of candidates for the 60 hour certificate course and the, and now for the national anthem.

Dr. Lee (00:02:33):

And now I'd like to tell you a little bit about our team. Can everyone hear me okay? If you can give a thumbs up if you can hear me. Awesome. So I am Dr. Ne, founder and CEO of nto. We also have Donna Lee, Jr. COO and Chief Marketing strategist, Dr. <inaudible>, lead facilitator and course developer, and Marshall ao, our lead admissions coordinator. A little bit about our story, so the Medical Interpreting and Translating Institute online was launched on January, 2004. I had been the director of patient advocacy at the Grady Health System, and one of the programs in my department was interpreting services. And I was tasked with making sure that all of our interpreters throughout our whole health system were trained and qualified. And at the time, uh, there weren't any remote interpreting options available. And so it was a bit of a challenge, but we got it done.

Dr. Lee (00:03:40):

We were in fact, one of the first health systems in the nation to do so, and we were the flagship interpreting health system for that. And I wanted to be able to replicate our success for other healthcare organizations. So material was launched with the idea that we could provide very comprehensive, very rigorous training in an online environment. See, I was also, at the time, a professor for DeVry University and the University of Phoenix, and was trained on how to develop courses. So I brought all that expertise and my love for healthcare administration and interpreting. And that's when we launched the Medical Interpreting and Translating Institute online. In May, 2017, we incorporated and rebranded. So we became, we shortened the acronym just to meet. And October of that year, we were accredited that by the I M I A, the International Medical Interpreters Association. In fact, we one of 10 organizations nationwide to be accredited by the IM i a and only two of which are online programs.

Dr. Lee (00:04:44):

In 2018, we launched the Met Staffing Agency after many of our alumni requested this. And so now every single one of our diploma graduates and most of our 60 hour certificate graduates are able to work for our agency upon completion of their program. And, uh, they're able to work with our clients that are in healthcare or government. In May, 2019, we were accredited by the N P C, the Nonpublic Education Commission, and we have been reaccredited every single year after that. And in October, 2021, we launched a medical is, uh, assisting program. And in fact, I will be conferring the winners in a few slides. Uh, the winners of the scholarship that we have awarded to a hundred of our alumni, our employer sponsors, these are sponsors that have partnered with us because they have realized how rigorous our program is, how, um, how effective it is in training, uh, bilingual individuals.

Dr. Lee (00:05:46):

And so they have spun, uh, they have partnered with us in order to employ our graduates. So Visual Language Pro CLP supports over 200 languages, including highly qualified slang language interpreters. They're passionate about creating linguistic access for everyone. And AMN Healthcare, they pride themselves in being an innovator, Oh, sorry. They, they pride themselves in being an innovator in the per diem industry, as well as being the nation's largest provider of clinical staffing services. Awesome. And so now I'd like to introduce our student speaker, Jonathan Richard Logan. He is a graduate of the University of Science Arts and Technology, U S A T, with a Bachelor of Education. In 2009, he was born in the us but he has lived around the world and is fluent in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Jonathan has been teaching languages, translating and interpreting for years. Shortly after graduating from U'S Degree program, he started working as a facilitator and really enjoys helping others to develop their linguistic skills.

Jonathan Logan (00:07:00):

Hello, my name is Jonathan. I'm a graduate of Mets hundred and 60 Hour diploma course. And I would like to share my experience. I had worked for many years in the translating and interpreting fields before I took Mets course. And although I had done written translations in the medical field for years, the idea of interpreting live was a little bit intimidating to me, mostly because I wasn't sure what to expect. Uh, I was also worried that maybe I wouldn't have the right terms on the tip of my tongue while I was interpreting. And I also wasn't too sure about protocol during a medical encounter. But the idea of interpreting in the medical field of having contact with the doctors and with the patients was very appealing to me. So I started to search for a course that would prepare me for the field. And when looking at courses, one of the things that made me to stick out to me was the life practice sessions.

Jonathan Logan (00:07:58):

If I had wanted to continue with written translations, a written online course would've been fine, but interpreting requires contact with people, and I didn't want to be thrown into that without practice. So the idea of combining written lessons with live plastic sessions where I could get feedback and assistance was very appealing to me. And I can definitely say that the course did not let me down. I learned a lot about protocol, about how to handle situations where clarity or cultural brokerage were needed, and also how to handle a situation, maybe if a specialized turn came up that I wasn't sure about. I both, the practice sessions and the course material surpassed my expectations. I feel that I graduated with more than just a piece of paper, but with experience and expertise ready to enter into the field, <inaudible> was also very helpful in getting my CMI certification. Thanks to their training, I knew exactly what to expect when I took the test, and I was able to pass on my first try. Anyone who's bilingual and who's interested in entering the medical interpreting field should definitely take a look at Meat's Diploma course.

Dr. Lee (00:09:17):

Thank you, Jonathan. That was an amazing testimonial. And now for our guest speaker, Ms. Cindy wrote, Ms. Cindy wrote was the lead developer of Bridging the Gap, which is the premier curriculum for medical interpreting. Ms. Road is a founder, founding member of the National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare N C I H C, where she currently serves on the board a founding member of the Washington State Coalition and Language Access, and a former board member of the, um, oh gosh, I can't, the, of education through community interpreter at notice as well. And he small and I host,

Cindy Roat (00:10:34):

We go. Okay, it's now officially a Zoom, uh, presentation because someone forgot to unmute. It's a pleasure to be with your, you all of you here today on this very special occasion. And, um, I want to say, first of all, greetings, uh, from the Pacific Northwest. I'm up here in Seattle, and I want to recognize that coming to you today from the traditional lands of the Suquamish people and the Duwamish people, um, and want to recognize their stewardship of the land here in the Pacific Northwest. Um, and I also want to say I have known, uh, Melva for quite a long time now, and it's very exciting to be here for your graduation. I have been told I have half an hour, and what I would like to do today is to take you all on a little trip back in time. Okay? So I am going to share my screen.

Cindy Roat (00:11:30):

Can you all see my screen? Just not, Oh, good. It worked. I love it when, when Zoom works, um, I want to take you on a little history trip about how this wonderful field that you are entering actually got started in the United States. They say that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. But I would would like to say that those of us who know our history know how hard we have worked over the past years to create language access and to create medical interpreting as the profession that you are now entering. Um, and as we move forward in time, as we understand where we came from, we can move forward in a more, uh, effective way. So let me take you back, uh, just a few years. Let's see, where's my, uh, okay, I need to get down here. So go.

Cindy Roat (00:12:26):

Whoops, that's not what I want. Um, okay. Sorry. This is okay. Um, my, maybe I can just do it this way. There we go. So this, I'm gonna talk to you today about healthcare interpreting in spoken language, okay? Because, uh, sign language has its own very, very rich history, and I only have half an hour. So there you go. Um, gonna go back in time just a little bit. Um, uh, well, maybe not that far back in time. This is where, um, I started interpreting back in the Jurassic period. Um, but let's jump ahead, uh, to the 1990s. Anybody there, remember the 1990s, um, some of the great icons of the 1990s? But, uh, let's talk about where healthcare interpreting was back in the 1990s. I'm not sure if any of you on here would've been around back then, but it's about 30 years ago, right?

Cindy Roat (00:13:27):

But let's think about who interpreted. Oh, so I saw some your ray's hand, Samir was around in the thank you. So, or now I don't feel so old. <laugh>. Let's talk about who interpreted Well, back then, it was mainly family and friends, Believe it or not, if you walked into a hospital and you were not, uh, proficient in English, you were expected to bring somebody with you. Um, or maybe they would call that bilingual staff member who might or might not be bilingual and who might or might not actually know anything about healthcare. So there was a lot of, um, you know, semial, people being asked called in, um, to interpret. And there were, there were a few here and there, professional interpreters, but very, very few at that time in terms of research. There was very little. And what was very hard about it was that they never defined what they meant by interpreter.

Cindy Roat (00:14:26):

So you really couldn't compare different pieces of research. You never really knew if they were talking about somebody who was trained as you all are, or somebody who had just been called in, you know, because their last name sounded vaguely Hispanic <laugh>, believe it or not. So it, there was very little effective research in terms of legislation. We did have the 1990s Americans with Disabilities Act, which guaranteed interpreter services or any kind of reasonable accommodation for, uh, patients who were deaf or heart of hearing. And we also had the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title six of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, says that if your program takes any kind of federal funding, you may not run it in such a way as to create discrimination on the basis of race, color, or country of national origin. And, uh, in 1974, a Supreme Court decision in Lao versus Wade ruled that language was an aspect of country of national origin.

Cindy Roat (00:15:31):

So, to put it bluntly, if you took any kind of federal funding like Medicaid or Medicare or any kind of research grants, you had to provide language access for your patients who did not speak English. So that either meant a bilingual provider or it meant working with an interpreter. But I put this in blue because, um, this wasn't being effectively enforced. And many, many institutions in 1990 didn't even know they had this legal requirement. They didn't even know they were required to do this in terms of reimbursement as to who was gonna pay the hospitals, reimburse them for providing language services. Well, yeah, <laugh>, no, then we just laughed about that, you know, didn't look like anybody was gonna pay for it. And you can imagine how happy the administrators were about that. In terms of technology, we were still in the stone age. Um, there was technically, uh, over the phone interpreting, there was only one company that did it, and it cost over $4, uh, per minute.

Cindy Roat (00:16:43):

And so it was not used practically anywhere. Way too expensive training. Well, it was kind like we were in kindergarten. There were very few programs, very few, um, most of them were short under 12 hours. Um, it, they were more orientations than they were trainings. Uh, and they were, as I say, in very few places, maybe Boston, Minneapolis, uh, Seattle. But as I say, in Seattle, what we had was like 12 hours, not very effective. And in terms of networking, there were places around a few around the country where language access was just beginning to get started to talk, to be talked about. Um, and, but those places, the people weren't talking to each other. So those of us in Seattle didn't talk to the people in Minneapolis or Boston. Everybody was kind of on their own certification. Well, at that point, if you'd said certification, everybody would've said what, what certification <laugh> people in the field didn't even know what certification meant.

Cindy Roat (00:17:56):

So in summary, back in 1990, this field was barely a field. It was a need more than anything else. So what happened? Well, first of all, demographics happened. Take a look at this. In 1990, we had 14 million people in the United States who indicated on the US census that they spoke English less than very well, which is the government's definition of limited English proficient l e p 14 million. In 2000, the number was 21.3 million in 2008, 26.4 million. And in the 2020 census, 26.9 million, we've gone from 6.1% of the population to 8.2% of the population. So what this means is that almost 27 million people in this country, when they go to the doctor, they cannot speak to an English speaking doctor in a way that they can understand. And let us not forget for whom we interpret, which is both patient and provider, the providers can't talk to the patients, which means they can't do their jobs.

Cindy Roat (00:19:19):

Another thing that happened were rules. Isn't this interesting? We had the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but the rules were not being enforced in the 1990s, or actually in 89 it started, the rules started to be enforced. The Office for Civil Rights had 122 civil rights complaints between 1990 and 2003. Those were complaints based on a failure to provide adequate language access in healthcare settings, which is called a country of origin violation in two thou because of this. In 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services actually sent out to every hospital, clinic and healthcare organization in the country legal guidance about their requirement to provide language access. And you can bet this was a big surprise for a lot of places. They had no idea they were required to do this. Um, and in addition to simply sending out this guidance, DHHS started to do something new, which is called compliance reviews.

Cindy Roat (00:20:30):

Instead of just waiting for someone to lodge a complaint, they actually went out and started randomly checking hospitals to see if they were providing the interpreters that they were supposed to provide. We also began to see some exciting legislation at a federal level, at a state level, and at local levels requiring the provision of language access, not just under an interpretation of civil rights law, but actually under the law itself. And the most important one for you to know about right now is the Affordable Care Act. That's right in Obamacare, there is a part that says that, um, institutions have to respect the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and that as part of that, they have to provide language access. And if you want to go in and look at section 1557, it actually spells out what it means by a qualified interpreter. So patients have a right to a qualified interpreter if they cannot speak English well enough to speak with their provider in English.

Cindy Roat (00:21:39):

There were also some lawsuits that popped up, for example, in 2001 in California, um, Elian patient Hong Kong, and I'm sure I mispronounced that, for which I apologize if any of you speak loud. This person was imprisoned for 10 months illegally for not taking her tuberculosis medication. But what's interesting is that she doesn't speak English, and she never had an interpreter not leading up to, or during the 10 months that she was illegally imprisoned in two, 2002 in Florida, a 36 year old woman with bacterial meningitis was misdiagnosed because her providers decided to use a semi fluent friend to interpret. And many of the key, uh, symptoms were simply never interpreted. And as a result, this patient died, which resulted in a very expensive suit. In 2002 in Arizona, a 13 year old Zelda Samura was actually asked to interpret when her parents brought her to the emergency room.

Cindy Roat (00:22:55):

She was the patient and they made her interpret. And as a result, she died at 13 years old. All of these ended up as lawsuits, which is the only way that we got to hear about them. But this underlines how critical it is to have a qualified and trained interpreter present when patients and providers need to speak with each other and they can't speak the same language. There was also pressure from accrediting bodies like the Joint Commission that Accredits Hospital and the National Counseling Quality Assurance requiring the provision of language access. And we had a bunch of research that was finally done, qualified researchers doing work that showed that when patients don't get effective interpreting, they have less, uh, access to health, they have poorer health outcomes, and they are treated in a discriminatory sort of way. And because of all of this, there started to be some public reimbursement to hospitals for the provision of interpreter services.

Cindy Roat (00:24:03):

And norms begin to change. When I started in this field, we went from why do we have to provide interpreters to how can we provide language most efficiently? And finally, from administrators, I started hearing cut the interpreters, Are you crazy? How would we communicate with our members? I can't tell you how happy it was. I was the day that I heard that from a hospital administrator <laugh>. And another result was that delivery service methods became a lot more sophisticated. So instead of just, you know, scrambling around trying to find somebody who might speak a language other than English, we actually had hospitals setting up programs of staff interpreters, contracted interpreters, uh, agencies that were, would contract with interpreters, and then an increase in telephonic and video interpreting. So many, many hospitals began to have what we call hybrid systems where there were many different options for getting an effective interpreter on site or on the phone or on the video to facilitate language access.

Cindy Roat (00:25:21):

So where are we in 20,002? 20, 20 22. I'm still back in 2002, 2022. Here we go. Where are we? Who interprets today? Well, unfortunately, once in a while, we still find places using family and friends. Um, but there are, in the Affordable Care Act, section 1557 of the regulations, it clearly states that family and friends are not supposed to be used to interpret unless they are the only option, and it's an emergency. What we're seeing a little bit more of are not just bilingual staff being called to interpret, but trained and vetted bilingual staff. These are called dual role interpreters. And these are people who are nurses, medical assistants, um, and they have been actually trained as interpreters, and it's a much more formalized system. But most of the interpreting this day, these days, is being done by professional interpreters. These are people who have, like you, who have been trained, who have been tested, and who, um, come into the institution simply to interpret, not that it's simple, I should say, they are dedicated interpreters.

Cindy Roat (00:26:44):

They are there only to provide their professional service, not to be divided between many different roles. In terms of technology, telephonic interpreting is almost universally available. Almost every place I know that I have ever gone in a hospital or clinic has a telephonic interpreting, uh, system. And video interpreting has been introduced in quite a few hospitals. Um, we also see computer assisted translation where human beings are using, um, machines to do the first run of a translation, and then the humans go back and, and basically fix it. But it's a lot faster and a lot cheaper. And this has really improved, uh, in trans, the availability of translated documents in many hospitals, in clinics and healthcare interpreting is also becoming more professional. Look at this, what we did not have in 1990, we now have more agreement on what is the appropriate role of the interpreter.

Cindy Roat (00:27:50):

Back in the nineties, there was a big debate about, as an interpreter, a social worker, as an interpreter, just a black box. And I think now we have a much more sophisticated understanding of where interpreters should be starting and the potential roles interpreters can take on temporarily if it turns out that the patient or provider are not understanding. We have a national code of ethics vetted by interpreters everywhere in the United States. We have a national standard of practice that tells us how to do our work and lets other people know how, what they can expect from us. And we have national standards for training programs. So we're seeing very, very few of these short 12 hour programs, many more forty, sixty, a hundred and twenty hour programs. Is this long enough? Uh, I guess we'll see, but it's certainly better than what I got when I started, which was nothing <laugh> actually I learned to interpret over lunch.

Cindy Roat (00:28:54):

How do you like that? Ah, it makes me just shutter when I think about it. <laugh> networking has improved amazingly. We now have National Council un Interpreting in healthcare that allows people all over the country to connect with each other to talk about what they're doing. We have organizations of, um, people who run interpreter services who can check in with each other in terms of training. We have lots of different training programs now online in person of synchronous, non synchronous and continuing education as well. So this means that we can't, there are many more opportunities for interpreters to get trained to become really effective in what they do. As for testing, we have a widening resources for screening language skills. Just are you bilingual? How bilingual are you? In? What fields are you bilingual? And we have, uh, interpreting skills testing, but more than more importantly, we now have national Certification for healthcare interpreters.

Cindy Roat (00:30:10):

As a matter of fact, we have two. We have the, uh, certification commission for Healthcare interpreters, CCH I, and we have the national board for a certification of medical interpreters, the c, the N B cmi. So now we have tests to show that interpreters are, at least at an entry level, are qualified and capable to provide accurate and effective interpretation in healthcare settings. So I whizzed through this really quickly, but I wanted just to summarize that we have come a long way in the past 50 or 30 years, let's say, um, from when I started in the field to where we are right now. And it just, you have no idea how happy it makes me to look at you all and to say, here is a group of really, of professionals in a profession that didn't exist 30 years ago. This profession is becoming more standardized so that from one hospital to another, from one state to another, when people come to work with interpreters, they know what to expect of us, and we know what we are expected to do.

Cindy Roat (00:31:26):

It's becoming more systematic, which is to say that when somebody walks into a hospital now who doesn't speak English, it's not a big crisis of running around trying to find someone who speaks another language. Now people know what to do, they know how to get an interpreter, they know how to talk to the patient. They know how to move that patient into the system as any other patient with an interpreter available to help them communicate. And it's being more integrated into the standard provision of care. Do you know, when I started in the few places that had language services in the hospital, they were kind of an ancillary department. They ran their own payroll, they had to run their own human resources. They, they were like the, the, i, I don't even know how to say it. It was like they were some kind of, um, separate entity that was kind of glommed onto the hospital, but now you won't see that language Access services is a department in hospitals.

Cindy Roat (00:32:33):

It uses the same, uh, payroll, the same human resources, the same policies as the whole rest of the hospital. It has been integrated into the healthcare system, and that is a huge step forward. So what comes next? What can you expect as you go out into the field? Well, I wish I had a crystal ball or some other way of predicting the future. Um, unfortunately I don't. But here's what I see. First of all, I think there's a lot of reason to believe that we will have some smooth sailing going forward. One is just taking a look at the limited English population in the United States. Uh, as you notice, this line keeps going up. Um, and as we bring in other refugee groups, because we are a country that welcomes refugees more or less, we could talk about that. But as you know, um, President Biden has promised a hundred a place for a hundred thousand refugees from the Ukraine if they want to come. And that means we will always have populations of limited English proficient people who need our help until they can learn English. If you, even if you just look at the foreign born population, look at this. These are the number of people in the United States who were born outside the United States. Here's where we are right now, right? And here's projected, and it just looks to be going up.

Cindy Roat (00:34:08):

Also, look at the number of foreign born US residents with health insurance since the Affordable Care Act was passed, an increasing number of people who previously didn't have access to health insurance and therefore never came to the hospital. Now have health insurance. And we are be, and we are seeing them much more often in clinical settings. What are the implications of all this? Well, we will not be running out of people who need language assistance very soon, and that is kind of a, uh, a job guarantee for many of you. We also look at changes in how healthcare is being provided or, or in health in general. It used to be that most of what we saw in the healthcare system were acute illnesses, but now what we're seeing are chronic illnesses. What's the difference? Well, acute illnesses develop quickly. It's severe and it's over quickly. So you usually either get better or you die. Chronic illness develops slowly. Symptoms are less severe, but it persists over a long time, and it's often progressive. That means it just gets worse. So we're talking about the difference between infections and arthritis, diabetes and fsa. These are conditions that are gonna require people to be in contact with the healthcare system over long periods of time, probably for their entire life.

Cindy Roat (00:35:42):

And so the implications of this managing chronic disease requires an understanding of the condition and the therapy. Patients need to understand, they need to make lifestyle changes and there needs to be constant follow up. All of these require clear communications. You can probably cast a broken bone with minimal conversation with the patient, but you cannot help them manage their diabetes unless you have clear communication with them. There's whoops. There's also been changes in healthcare in how healthcare is provided. It used to be that providers were paid fee for service, they gave a service, they got paid for it. Now, the under the Affordable Care Act, they're getting paid for outcomes. For example, hospitals that have somebody who is rehospitalized for the same problem within a certain period of time will not get paid for that second hospitalization. So the patient better understand their discharge instructions, right?

Cindy Roat (00:36:55):

<laugh>, they need to know what's going on. Also, care is getting more personalized. Have you seen this telemedicine where you can access your doctor over a video and also you can text your doctor? Now, how about that? But all of these, um, require communication. And we see we have much better care coordination than we used to between families and the group of doctors. And oh, look, there's an interpreter because if a patient or their family is gonna meet with the care team, they have to have clear communication. And that requires if the patient doesn't speak English or the family that they're gonna need an interpreter. There's also been a growing, growing focus on patient safety. And these are the four bases of patient safety and look, communication. It's basic for patient safety. Well, how are they gonna do that without us? Eh, I ask you.

Cindy Roat (00:38:02):

There are also been changes in the interpreting field, more trainings available, you know, in person training, online training, um, uh, continuing education, uh, synchronous trainings where you're all online together, asynchronous trainings where you just go on and take of continuing ed course on your own. But now there is a lot of training available for interpreters. We also, as we mentioned, have national certification and a growing number of hospitals in clinics are requiring it. So if you're not certified yet, and there's no reason you should be, you just finished your training, but you should plan within a year to become certified because this is gonna be increasingly required. And we are part of a fast growing field. Look at this data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2016. They posited that this is the rate at which all jobs were going to grow in the US economy. This is the rate at which jobs in translation and interpretation are going to grow. Do you notice something? This is amazingly <laugh>. This is an amazing increase, much greater than just jobs in general. So this is a fast growing field.

Cindy Roat (00:39:27):

However, there are some things that we need to keep our eyes on. We notice that interpreter service budgets are being cut. And since Covid has really impacted the budgets of many healthcare institutions, we find that everything's being cut. All departments are being asked to cut. And what they're doing oftentimes is they're cutting the staff interpreters and moving exclusively to remote modalities. Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with video interpreting or telephonic interpreting, but can you imagine telling a mother that her baby has died over a video, over a telephone? Can you imagine telling someone that their cancer is inoperable over a telephone? I think there are many times that remote modalities are not appropriate. So this shift to remote is a little concerning. There's also a continuing lack of understanding among administrators about the importance of language access and the effective ways of providing it.

Cindy Roat (00:40:40):

And we have to note, we have, especially in some parts of the country, a very strong anti-immigrant sentiment where people are not happy about money being spent to provide services for immigrants and refugees, although that is a tiny, tiny portion of the cost of our healthcare system. And finally, we have to ask, is artificial intelligence a threat? Um, are we gonna be replaced by smart machines who can interpret, uh, without an in, without an actual human being involved? I think the answer is not yet <laugh>. Um, we certainly are not there yet. Um, any of these, uh, like Google Pixel buds and any of these, um, uh, you can even see Google Translate. Um, they have gotten much better, but they are not there. And even Google itself says that Google Translate is not supposed to be used in a, uh, in a healthcare setting in any high stake setting.

Cindy Roat (00:41:46):

So the, I think the jury is out on this one. So we are not safe in harbor where we can rest on our laurels. So we need to ask ourselves what's it to be? And I say, we all need to fight for language access interpreters. You do your part by improving your skills, getting certified learning to use technology effectively, and educating the healthcare team on how to work with you effectively. Managers, they need to defend their hybrid systems. Don't fire or let 'em fire all the staff interpreters. They need to experiment with new and cheaper ways of doing this work without compromising quality. They need to educate the administrative teams about interpreting language and language access and vendors, those language service, um, providers. Please no race to the bottom. Please don't just keep cutting your cost because that means you're cutting what you're paying. Interpreters care for your interpreters. They are this limited resource on which you are basing all of your business. We need to take care of these people. They are our chicken that lays the golden egg, if you will, but you have to take care of them and treat them well. Treat them with respect and pay them adequate wages.

Cindy Roat (00:43:15):

Everyone needs to support each other. This is not interpreters against vendors, managers against interpreters. We are all in this together, all maintaining the vision of providing good language services to patients and providers who cannot speak to each other without our help. To finish up with this, that brings me to probably the most important part of what I want to say today. And that is this. What you do by the very nature of it, often seems to be in the background. Of course, if you're doing it well, you're in the background. If the patient and provider feel they've talked directly to each other, you succeeded in doing your best work.

Cindy Roat (00:44:07):

But because of this, we are often under undervalued. You need to know how very important you are if you're not there. Patients can't tell their stories. They can't tell their, they can't describe their symptoms, they can't give informed consent if you're not, their providers can't a history, they can't understand what the patient is complaining about. They can't do any kind of procedures without a viable informed consent. And they can't come to a diagnosis and share that diagnosis with a patient. They can't help them figure out how to treat and how to improve their health. Really, as we move more into treating chronic disease without good communication, there is no healthcare. As one provider once told me, without a good interpreter, if I'm treating a patient who doesn't speak English, I'm just doing veterinary medicine. Without you, there is no healthcare for patients who speak limited English.

Cindy Roat (00:45:20):

You are the absolute critical link in this working relationship. So never underestimate the importance of what you do. Don't give up on continuing education. Keep learning new things. Remember better you get the clearer the communication, the better the care that the patients receive and that the providers can offer. You are a new profession, a valuable profession, and you are helping heal many of the wounds that have ripped our country apart in these last years. Because through you, that unusual patient who speaks a strange language suddenly isn't strange anymore. That patients asking the same questions that the last patient did who spoke English, suddenly this is a person with thoughts and feelings in healthcare concerns. And you being there has helps create that bond. So remember how important you are, remember how important it is that you do your best work always. And congratulations for dedicating so much time and effort to getting a degree, uh, to getting a certificate for preparing yourself to be that very best critical link. I thank you for your work and I know that we will meet again sometime. Thank you.

Dr. Lee (00:46:55):

Thank you, Ms. Roe. That was amazing. Your passion is still fiery <laugh>. So we thank you so much for that amazing, uh, presentation. We want to congratulate all of our alumni who submitted their applications for the medical Assistant scholarship. And here we present all of those winners. You are all amazing and you are all part of the ETO family. Congratulations to you all. And now we will present the 60 hour certificate and 160 hour diploma program and conferring of those degrees. But first, we wanted to recognize all of our WellStar graduates from the 60 hour certificate course. Here they are presented in this picture. Congratulations to you all.

Dr. Lee (00:47:54):

Abdu a hooker got my of Medical interpreter, Medical interpreter program St. Alva. I'm thankful for the chance to study and to make one of my dreams come, come true. I will try my best to help people with limited language skills, utilizing my language as interpreter Lu I Bar Medical Interpreter Diploma Program, medical interpreter certificate course madina, or I wanted to express my gratitude to all the teachers and instructors of material who helped was essential in aca. My goal of completing the hundred 60 hour diploma course, you made a huge difference. Every life session in one on one were significant steps forward in gaining more experience and skills. The course was excellent and very well organized. It gave me the necessary knowledge and tools to start a new career as a professional in medical interpreting field. G breakfield Medical Interpreter Diploma Program, Laura Cannon, thank you MI for this opportunity.

Dr. Lee (00:49:17):

Medical Interpreter Certificate course. Roxanne Shard Medical interpreter program. Cor, thank you MI for your support. Elizabeth Cruz, your purpose in life is to find a purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it. Francis SCO Diaz. I want to thank my aunt A for lending me the money and encouraging me to continue with my studies. Thanks to my parents, Sarah and Miano and my girlfriend Sandra too. She Emory. I'm so honored to be here for this graduation ceremony. My native language is Mandarin. English is my second language. Thanks for learning English. As a major in university and living in the US for years, I feel a lot more confident and comfortable to communicate with native English speakers. And I thought it should be easy to be a translator or interpreter until I went to see a doctor and visited a hospital. I found out that there are so many medical terminologies, I don't know.

Dr. Lee (00:50:24):

And that the healthcare system is so much different. I can imagine how difficult it would be for a foreigner or someone who speaks limited English to get healthcare. I want to help those people and I want to be a medical interpreter. Therefore, I took the 60 hour medical training from Metto and found out the training is so helpful and professional for my career. Jor, Cue Esposa. I was grateful to be part of this self-paced force. I'm looking forward to an exciting career as a medical interpreter. Also a big thank you to Mr. Hoste for supporting me during my studies. I thank all each of your staff for communicating with me. Email after email. Thank you for your patience with me. Finally, I thank Dr. Lee for guiding our school to be well known and respected in the United States. God bless you all. Duty Franco. It is quite easy to become stationary in life.

Dr. Lee (00:51:23):

Comfort is the greater femine for progress. Upon graduating from a foreign medical school, I lost my father and my mother became ill. It was easy to dream as a child, but reality forced me to focus on survival. First. Being the of three forced me to find work to support the family. I was not able to complete my dream as a medical doctor. As a result, I became a very independent and strong individual. I have assumed these responsibilities my entire life and put my goals on home. I have decided to return to school at the age of 63 as a role model for women because it is never too late to dream and age is just the number. I have worked a multitude of both administrative and medical jobs in which I have always been the interpreter. For individuals who Spanish is their primary language, the confidence, respect, and honesty I give and receive are priceless. In conclusion, I would like to state that I have been able to appreciate the need forward patience, tactfulness and sensitivity when dealing with patients. My experiences have been liken my way of thinking as a human being, both mentally and physically. I will continue to utilize my skills in closing cultural and language gaps that often exist between healthcare providers and their patients.

Dr. Lee (00:52:47):

My career path was not clear to me until my last year in college. When I decided to randomly take an Italian, that is when I realized how much I love languages and the ease I had to learn them. Since then, I have perfected my Spanish, French, and English and has been one more achievement for me to reach my goal of being nationally certified as a medical interpreter. I look forward to all the opportunities that this field has to offer. Liz Beth Madrid, Hernandez, If you have a skill, use it for the good of others. Danette Mato, I'm so grateful to have completed my course with looking forward to keep working with them is helping professionally and it is life changing.

Dr. Lee (00:53:44):

Yeah. Hello, medical interpreter diploma program. Rammy Roy Zu. I'm an English to Arabic interpreter. Rosalyn Soto Johnson. Thank you. Met. I'm enjoying my new career path. Ella P Met has been an extraordinary experience for me. Working as a professional interpreter has been a great achievement in my life and I'm really proud of my diploma as a medical interpreter, medical translator and certificate in mental health. I will continue studying and improve myself with the help of the outstanding team of I Certificate course. Jonathan Logan. Both the practice sessions and the course material surpassed my expectations. I feel that I graduated with more than just a piece of paper, but with experience and expertise ready to enter the field. And as start and halfway there on Scott Lopez medical interpreter diploma program, Sophia Lopez always being grateful. Nancy Manly medical interpreter diploma program, ELCA Martinez graduated from 160 hours certification on medical interpretation and a 20 hour certification on core Interpret First most.

Dr. Lee (00:55:15):

I thank God my family and the material family for all your support. Thank you. In many blessings to all Yvette Michelle Medical interpreter program, Manic Medical interpreter diploma program. Maia Morre, Thank you to me, Tia team for your support. Never would have made it without God and you. God. Manash. I chose to go back to school to further my education in interpreting and translating languages because I love to help people communicate and connect with each other even though there might be a language barrier. Alina Ortega medical interpreter Certificate course, Carol Bist. Medical Interpreter Interpreting is not easy, but it's something I've always been passionate about. I love the mix between medicine and languages. And the day I saw the opportunity of doing this course, I felt more than excited. I'm grateful to God, Dr. Lee, the Meto and my colleagues for helping me through this process.

Dr. Lee (00:56:27):

Ellen Fitz. With God, all things are possible. Nialta Healthcare is a feel in which training and education, including continuing education, is imperative in order to provide the highest quality of care for patients. In today's world, many professionals have used education and training as a means of professionalization. And medical interpreting is no exception. It is through education that professionals acquire a solid framework. As the bilingual student English and Spanish helpings. Communicate with others has been a very satisfactory and fulfilling, fulfilling passion. Whether it was it was done for a coworker at the grocery store that I work for or helping my parents with their bills and utilities, I'm very happy to be able to complete my courses through TIA School and becoming a professional medical interpreter and getting certified soon. Meeting F Medical interpreter Certificate course, Jaine Rodriguez. I'm creating a bright future for my daughters.

Dr. Lee (00:57:34):

I want them to look up to me and want more. Jalo. I learned so much during my course. I feel confident honoring the voice of the lep. My vocabulary and knowledge expanded at a level where I wasn't at the beginning of this course. There are protocols and standards that just see professional interpreter will follow. I realize that it's not enough to speak at least two languages. It's, it's more than that. Just here at me, Tia. With Life Sessions. I learned unforgettable lessons. A sad medical interpreter graduate. Lena Saba, Medical interpreter diploma program, Medical interpreter certificate course, Medical interpreter. Certificate course. Elaine, I'm grateful for this opportunity in being able to use my gift in languages to help others in need. Dr. Lee, thank you for creating a school for such purposes. Benny Shane, A new beginning. Ruta, congratulations to all the graduates. Anna Maria. I received an ETO certificate, Medical Interpreting in August of 2018. In April of 2022, I completed the mental health for the medical interpreting course. I'm currently a medical interpreter for Shepherd's Hope Medical Clinic, serving the uninsured community. I also work as a contract onsite. Medical interpreter.

Dr. Lee (00:59:11):

Medical interpreter. Certificate course. Esther Thomas. I'm happy to be part of the N Family. Jean Bayard. So thankful for joining material. I'm proud to be a member of the family. Jhu, thanks so much for helping us with building the confidence and interpreting field. And that concludes, and that concludes our first annual material graduation ceremony. We thank you all and we're so excited to celebrate with you. We ask all the alumni who were not able to submit their application because of the deadline, just do so. For next year's graduation, we ask that you all have a blessed future. Be blessing your future endeavors, and remember to transform your bilingual abilities.