Ouch! Pain Terminology for Translators and Interpreters

This webinar will explore pain mechanisms, assessment techniques, and cultural nuances in pain description that are essential for accurate translation and interpreting in health care settings.

Pain is a widespread experience, yet highly subjective and challenging to articulate, particularly for non-English speakers. Health care providers rely on pain characteristics (e.g., throbbing vs. pulsating, acute vs. chronic) gathered during medical interviews to diagnose and treat patients effectively.

During this webinar we’ll delve into the nature of pain, pain descriptors, and cultural considerations during medical visits, which are all essential for language professionals in accurately conveying these nuances.

You will:

1. Understand the mechanisms and classification of pain.
2. Gain insight into the complexities of pain, including its nature and descriptors.
3. Learn how medical professionals assess pain.
4. Recognize different qualities of pain.
5. Enhance skills in accurately conveying pain-related information in health care settings.

About the Presenter

Gloria M. Rivera is an English>Spanish translator, a certified court interpreter (California), a certified health care interpreter, a conference interpreter, and a cultural consultant. As a trainer, she combines her background as a physician and surgeon in Lima, Peru, with her experience as a translator and interpreter to develop and present educational material that is not only medically accurate but also reflects real-life situations. Awarded the California Healthcare Interpreting Association’s Trainer of the Year for 2018, she shares her knowledge at conferences in the U.S. and abroad, as well as online through her company, Blue Urpi.