The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology has graduated the first class from its Health Care Interpreting certificate program, the first program of its kind offered anywhere.
Thirteen students completed the 12-month Certificate in Health Care Interpreting taught by members of NTID's American Sign Language & Interpreting Education Department. The program, was designed to provide specialized professional development to nationally certified ASL/English interpreters in the area of health care interpreting.
"This program represents a historic initiative to expand educational opportunities in an area of dire need within the interpreting profession," says NTID President Gerry Buckley. "Not only is NTID's interpreting program the first and largest in the nation, it continues to be at the forefront in providing specialized skill development for sign language interpreters."
Students in the program took courses on the RIT campus and completed field observations at medical settings off campus, where health care professionals and other interpreters were working.
"It was very successful," says Kathy Miraglia, who worked as a professional medical interpreter before joining NTID as an ASL instructor in 2009. "There was a waiting list of applicants to enroll in the first class. We received a lot of feedback, and we'll continue to expand and enhance future classes."
The program, which will resume in September, employs innovative teaching methodologies delivered by nationally recognized health care experts, including a physician who is deaf. It features more than 160 hours of classroom instruction combined with practical experience.
Students learn medical and psychiatric terms, procedures, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, and learn the way that terminology is used in medical settings.
"I wish there was a program like this when I was going through medical school," says Dr. Carolyn Stern, a deaf physician who helped teach the classes. "My overarching mission for this course was for interpreters to not just understand basic anatomy and physiology, human disease, pharmacology and other tests done during the course of health care provision, but to understand how doctors and other health care professionals think. This way, they can anticipate and understand medical lingo."
Upon completion, students are awarded a Certificate in Health Care Interpreting from NTID and will earn up to 16 Continuing Education Units from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.
The program plans to offer training online beginning in the summer of 2013. For more information, visit: www.rit.edu/ntid/healthcareinterpreting.
Taken from www.ntid.rit.edu/news/first-ever-health-care-interpreting-certificate-grads-ritntid.
First-Ever Health Care Interpreting Certificate Grads at RIT/NTID
Share:
