Rapport management in interpreter-mediated mental health encounters
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration into how interpreters influence doctor-patient communication and interpersonal interaction in mental healthcare settings with particular emphasis on rapport management
IRAS ID
240309
Contact name
Natalia Rodriguez-Vicente
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Heriot-Watt University
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
As a result of the increasing prevalence of mental illness and shifts in migration trends, the demand for foreign language interpreters to assist doctors in communicating with linguistically and culturally diverse (LACD) patients is increasing. Because this is a relatively recent demand, we are not fully aware of all the challenges that can arise in interpreter-mediated mental healthcare (MHC) encounters. One of those challenges is rapport management. MHC practitioners are trained to communicate in a specific way in order to establish a clinical rapport with their patients. Research consistently shows that there is a correlation between a good doctor-patient rapport and positive clinical outcomes. Research also shows that rapport-oriented techniques are occasionally language and culture-bound (E.g. through the use of metaphors). As a result, it could be argued that interpreters may play an important role in helping MHC practitioners manage rapport with their LACD patients because interpreters have direct access to the patient’s language and culture. This project will use a qualitative research design to explore how rapport is managed within the patient-interpreter-practitioner triad. If ethical approval is granted, the methods to be employed to achieve that aim would consist of:
• Participant observation in interpreter-mediated encounters (IMEs) and field notes of the linguistic and behavioural patterns of participants, with a particular emphasis on strategies aimed at building rapport (doctor-interpreter-patient).
• (If participants’ consent is provided) audio-recordings and transcriptions of the sessions in order for the researcher to identify how verbal rapport-management strategies are negotiated during the interaction (E.g. positive reinforcement, back-channelling). Working with audio-recordings would make it easier for the researcher to focus on non-verbal strategies when observing the session. The sample size is expected to fall between a range of 4 and 8 encounters.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0214
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion