Resident communication practices during interpreter-mediated family-centered rounds.

Authors

Joelle Kane, Liezelle Lopez, Emma Ridener, Andrew Schwieter, Chen Chen, Bin Huang, Angela Statile, Laura Brower

Published in

Journal of hospital medicine. Sep 22, 2026. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

Pediatric residents are required to learn and demonstrate communication skills applicable to a range of cultural backgrounds, including patients and families who use a language other than English. Our study utilized an observational tool, the adapted Faculty Observer Rating Scale (aFORS), to characterize communication practices during interpreter-mediated family-centered rounds and compare behaviors by patient language and interpreter modality. Following 31 observations, we identified four behaviors performed <75% of the time: (1) providing clinical context to the interpreter, (2) allowing patient/caregiver to speak first, (3) teach-back, and (4) developing rapport. No differences were identified by patient language. During encounters with in-person interpreters, residents always used plain language (p-value 0.0149) and had higher-ranked adapted Faculty Observer Rating Scale (aFORS) summary scores (p-value 0.01). Curricula to train residents should focus on skills to strengthen interpreter partnership, build rapport with families, and mitigate challenges to working with remote interpreters.

PMID:
42773763
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.