unrecognised miscommunication is dangerous - it can have serious consequences for the quality of care and patient outcomes
never assume communication has been effective - miscommunication if often masked by the efforts of participants to make it work
Participants (staff or patients) might not be comfortable interrupting to clarify information when they are unsure - or they might be totally unaware when they have misunderstood.
There is a particularly high risk of miscommunication going unnoticed when the patient is relatively fluent in conversational English: it is easy to incorrectly assume a shared understanding of concepts that may not be familiar - or are understood differently - by the patient / family even though they can converse confidently in English.
check the patient's understanding
Asking ' do you understand?' is not a valid comprehension check; you
also need to check the interpreter's accuracy - try asking the patient
to repeat your message in their own words..
check your own understanding
summarise what you think the patient has told you and try to find out
if your understanding is accurate - this is challenging as the patient
is unlikely to disagree with what you say directly (verbal agreement with
the speaker, regardless of the listener's actual opinion, is a strong
politeness convention in some cultures). Ask the interpreter to help you
verify that your understanding is accurate.
look for evidence that communication has been successful - or unsuccessful