Examining Teach-back in Healthcare Interpreting through Case Study Research

Resumen

Clinicians engage in interactions with migrant patients that often experience low health literacy levels and linguistic barriers. Institutions are tasked to provide adequate interpreting services and ensure effective communication strategies. Among these, the teach-back (TB) method allows clinicians to check the patient’s level of understanding by asking them to repeat what they have understood after health information is delivered. Despite its relevance in mono-/bilingual consultations, studies on TB when an interpreter is present are scarce. Drawing on case-study research and conversational analysis, this paper examines a dataset of interpreted-mediated interactions involving TB and occurring in a Spanish hospital. We aim to i) isolate instances of TB, ii) detect scenarios where TB is used, iii) develop an exploratory and descriptive analysis of two illustrative cases, and iv) provide suggestions for interpreter-clinician collaborative usage of TB in migrant healthcare provision.