Justice in any language: Experiences with and learning of language justice and medical interpretation among students...

Language discordance clearly matters in the production of healthcare and health disparities. Less clear is how training in medical interpretation and language justice might shape the perspectives of health professions students and practitioners in advancing language access. We sought to explore how students in health professions training programs and health practitioners engaged with and experienced a medical interpretation course presented with or without a training focused on language justice.

We implemented a standard national medical interpretation course that did not require a test of language proficiency in North Carolina, USA, during the 2022-2023 academic year. We implemented three separate offerings reaching 80 pre-health and health professions students and health professionals. For 28 individuals participating in one of the three sessions, we included an additional 4.5-hour training on language justice. We then conducted interviews with 17 individuals who had participated in one of the 3 course offerings.

We identified four themes that (1) revealed how participants defined language justice, (2) explored participants' experiences with language [in]justice, (3) identified views on medical interpretation and its relevance to healthcare and language justice, and (4) showed how participants perceived that medical interpretation and language justice training will impact their future work.

Language discordance remains important in healthcare and for consideration in health professional training programs. Our findings suggest that a medical interpretation course-with or without specific training in language justice-can advance language access and encourage efforts to better address language barriers in healthcare settings.