The MiTio Blog

If you’re interested in working as a medical interpreter, preparing for certification is a crucial part of landing a job. Here, we’ll explain the tests, explore more about the two certification bodies in the United States, and provide a list of resources to help you study and prepare.

As a medical interpreter, you’ll have a direct impact on patient care for people who do not speak English as their native language. You could work in various environments, ranging from a hospital setting to doctor’s offices, long-term care facilities, and more. You may work directly for the health care facility, or you may be hired by a third-party who will dispatch you to the facility where you are needed. 

If you are bilingual with fluency in English and Spanish, you may find fulfilling work as a Spanish medical interpreter. You may be working in a medical center or doctor's office to help medical assistants and doctors work with patients who do not speak English. Your involvement in medical interpretation helps to improve patient care and medical record keeping.

Being a Spanish/English medical interpreter is a position with a lot of responsibility. Your understanding of both languages must be perfect, and you must be able to catch nuances and small differences in similar words or phrases. Medical terms are unfamiliar to most people. To be an effective interpreter and patient advocate, you need to fully understand the meaning of both common and uncommon words in English and Spanish languages.

If you’re fluent in English and one or more other foreign languages, you could use your skills to improve patient care at a hospital. While many healthcare professionals may take a Spanish course, it's often not enough to get past the basics, negatively affecting patient care.

Being bilingual opens up many job opportunities for language services in a variety of fields. There is a global demand from businesses and healthcare services alike for people who are fluent in English and another language to work in a variety of positions, including at bilingual call centers, translation jobs, interpretation, localization, online teaching, and more.

A hospital interpreter provides an essential service in a hospital setting by using their skills to help patients and healthcare professionals communicate clearly and efficiently. A hospital interpreter’s role is to translate information between both parties and ensure everyone involved fully understands all diagnoses, recommendations, and treatment instructions. A hospital interpreter also must consider and communicate any cultural nuances to the medical professional, which may impact a patient’s understanding or care. 

Being able to speak more than one language fluently opens a whole lot of opportunities. In these times of making money from home, language skills are a perfect skill set to utilize and expand. Many companies are urgently seeking bilingual or multilingual people to work as telephone/video interpreters.

Fluency in two languages is a highly marketable skill. Many companies are global today, and almost all countries have immigrants - and that means courts, medical facilities, schools, call centers, and other businesses need translators in different languages for customers or clients who speak limited English. Spanish is one of the most common second languages in the United States. If you can speak and write English and Spanish, you may be able to earn a full-time or part time living without leaving home.