"Immigration has long been relied upon to offset periodic shortages of health-care workers in the United States.

"Today, immigrants make up a significant proportion of some health-care occupations.

"US health-worker shortages are related to a number of factors, including,

• Aging of the nursing workforce,
• High turnovers of existing health-care workers, and
• The US educational system not keeping up with demand.

"The US Department of Health and Human Services projects an estimated shortfall of 275,000 full-time registered nurses (RNs) by 2010 and 800,000 by 2020.

"Drawing mainly on 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data from the US Census Bureau, as well as data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this Spotlight focuses specifically on international health-care worker migration to the United States and provides a demographic and economic profile of foreign-born workers employed in US health-care occupations."

Read the rest of this Migration Information Source (MIS) article here >>

MetroLatinoUSA.com Interviews Habib Serrano, First Nationally Certified Medical Interpreter.

Original story in Spanish can be found here >>

Story highlights include:

• Headline: Certified Medical Interpreters Benefit Patients: "Being bilingual does not mean being an interpreter, you have to be familiar with the material."


• It's beneficial and important to have certified medical interpreters; one reason includes reducing possibilities of neglect


• Habib Serrano is one example who has studied medical terminology and taken science courses in order to be able to deliver accurate messages to patients


• Along with 70 other professionals, Serrano was appointed CMI by the National Medical Interpreter Certification Association


• Since the launch of the program in October of 2009, 300 interpreters have taken or are in the process of taking written and oral exams to become CMIs


• "Being understood in a hospital or any other health center can determine life or death" - Serrano


• An order issued by former President Bill Clinton in 2000 hoped to facilitate access to language interpretation under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Law which prohibits discrimination by race, color or national origin


• However, due to lack of an established national certification, medical centers responded differently


• Although becoming a CMI is a great achievement, limited-English speaking patients' safety is not guaranteed until certification is established as a national norm


• Language Line Services along with IMIA (the International Medical Interpreters Association) and more than 100 medical interpreters, health professionals and hospital executives have asked Congress this week to adopt CMI as the official certification

About the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters

The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters is a non-profit organization, formed from an independent group of industry professionals who represent all key stakeholder groups, including professional medical interpreters, trainers, employers, providers, and regulators.

The National Board serves as the certifying entity and has independent authority over all essential certification decisions. The purpose of certification is to ensure limited-English proficiency patient safety by evaluating and assuring the competency of medical interpreters.

The formation and structure of the National Board of Certification adheres to the standards and requirements for certification program governance mandated by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) - formerly NOCA, and will be applying for its accreditation.

For more information, visit www.certifiedmedicalinterpreters.org

London, UK, July 29, 2010 - Medical interpreters will gather at the Wellington Hospital South campus of Wellington, on Thursday, August 5, 2010 for the first annual IMIA UK Symposium for Medical Interpreters. The theme of the symposium is "Medical Interpreter Standards of Practice."

"There is currently no UK trade association specifically for medical interpreters, as the UK has a community interpreter tradition. The IMIA UK Chapter is attempting to fill this gap", said Izabel Arocha, President of the International Medical Interpreters Association, IMIA.

"Even though many interpreters work in several settings, those that only specialize in medical interpreting want to specialize further and network with others that also work exclusively in varied medical settings."

Linda Joyce, an international language access consultant and interpreter in the US and IMIA Board Director, is the keynote speaker for the event. "It will be exciting to meet colleagues in the UK who are working hard to serve patients who do not speak the local language and share experiences with them," she said. Symposium participants will be able to take an active role in this effort by joining various projects that are in progress, whose work will be discussed at the symposium. Participants will learn of the Medical Interpreting Standards of Practice, and other issues as interpreter professionals.

"We are very thankful to Wellington Hospital for hosting this event. They are providing us with the opportunity to have a face to face discussion about our work as healthcare interpreters," said Siham Awardalla, the IMIA UK representative and organizer of the event. The IMIA UK Symposium will occur from 3-5pm, and is hosted by Wellington Hospital and sponsored by the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA).

The event is free of charge and is occurring in the South Tower. For more information please email Siham Awardalla at IMIAUK@gmail.com

About the IMIA

The IMIA is an umbrella association that promotes all standards and best practices in the field of medical interpreting. The organization's most current work involves developing an accreditation for medical interpreter training program. (www.imiaweb.org)

If you seem to be noticing more languages being spoken by your patients and their family members, it's not your imagination!

With just a bit of research, you'll find that over 300 languages are being spoken today in the United States. Here are just three authoritative resources with strikingly different totals:

• ETHNOLOGUE.com - 245 languages "The number of individual languages listed for United States is 245. Of those, 176 are living languages, 4 are second languages without mother-tongue speakers, and 65 have no known speakers."


• WIKIPEDIA.org - 337 languages spoken or signed, of which 176 are indigenous and 52 languages are now extinct.


• US-ENGLISH.org - 322 languages "There are 322 languages spoken at home in the United States."

Ethnologue, in particular, has some interesting "language maps" for where you live and work. Check them out here:

Interested in an ongoing dialogue about Language, immigration and culture?

Follow Language Line Services and our company president, Louis Provenzano on Twitter.

Selected News of the Month

• Language Line Services' - Cross-Cultural Update for July 2010. Useful Cultural News, Tips and Timely Information


• "Obama Gets it Right in Arizona" by Louis Provenzano in the HuffingtonPost.com


• MetroLatinoUSA.com Interviews Habib Serrano, First Nationally Certified Medical Interpreter


• Medical Interpreters Embrace Nation's First Certification Through Independent Board. As Interpreters Become Certified, National Medical Interpreter Certification Program Improves Patient Safety Process

More Language Line Services news here >>

Language Line Services, the leader in language interpretation, is seeking to increase its interpreter team in many languages, as well as offering a wide variety of corporate openings.

Dual Role Interpreters in California

An exciting new opportunity is available to experienced interpreters living in the Los Angeles area. Interpreters will now be able to do both on-site, face-to-face interpreting as well as over-the-phone interpreting in the following languages: Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Farsi, Armenian, and Japanese.

As for over the phone interpreters only, we have openings in a number of languages including:

• Balochi,
• Chamorro
• Chin
• Chru
• Chuukese
• Edo
• K'iche
• Kotokoli
• Mixteco
• Mam
• Punu
• Tigre
• Spanish work-at-home Interpreters (USA), and
• Dual Role Interpreters (over the phone AND on-site) in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange Counties (CA, USA)

And, finally, among non-interpreter positions, here is a selection for which we are interviewing:

• Account Manager
• Data Entry Clerk - Customer Contracts
• Graphic Designer/Production Artist
• Inside Sales - Lingo Systems division
• Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains Application
• Sales Associates
• Sales Executive Government - West Coast
• Senior Sales Executive (one each in: Business Partnership Development; General Markets; Government; Healthcare)
• Onsite Interpreter Trainer
• Portuguese Senior Language Supervisor

For non-interpreter positions, please apply at: www.languageline.com/careers. Click on "Apply Today" under "Corporate Careers" and follow the directions to add your profile.

EEO/AA Employer.

* Some positions may have been filled by the time you apply. However, new positions open every week.

Visit our Career Center here >>

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