BECOME A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL INTERPRETER
50-hour Certificate
***NOTE: Students who sign up before October 10th receive $100 off. The price will change to $575 at 12:00am on October 11th.***
October 17th - November 15th
Saturday & Sunday
3:00pm to 7:00pm Pacific Time
Class sizes are capped at 16 students.
Qualifies for 5.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) in Professional Studies. Students can opt to attend 10 hours of optional out-of-class training sessions to receive a 60-hour certificate and 6.0 RID CEUs at no additional cost.
All proceeds are used for charitable purposes.
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Jalil Azzad, M.D.
Jalil is a Doctor of Medicine with 9 years of experience as a Spanish interpreter. He specializes in medical terminology and has a passion for cardiology, pulmonology, & surgery.
Robin Ragan, PhD
Robin has been teaching Spanish at the university level for over twenty years. For the last five years, she has been teaching, translation, and interpreting, including medical interpreting. She is an experienced CMI-Spanish interpreter and is also active in pro bono interpreting work for NGOs assisting asylum seekers at the border.
Yuliya Speroff
Yuliya Speroff is a Russian-English CoreCHI™ and WA DSHS-certified medical and social services interpreter based in Seattle, Washington. Yuliya first started interpreting over 10 years ago in her hometown of Novosibirsk, Russia and has since interpreted in a variety of settings – from a fighter jet factory to a live brain surgery, and most recently at a number of hospitals in Seattle.
Yuliya also holds an MA in Business Management and is certified as both an English and a Russian language instructor with more than 10 years of teaching experience.
Yuliya has found a way to share her passion for the interpreting profession and language access through teaching continuing education workshops and basic training courses for healthcare interpreters and writing in The Medical Interpreter Blog, which focuses on providing medical interpreters with resources and information for continuous professional development. In addition, Yuliya shares useful resources and relevant news in her Facebook group, Interpreters and Translators in Washington State, which welcomes interpreters and translators working in the Pacific Northwest to share resources, ask questions and find support.
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Olga Bogatova, M.Sc.
Olga is a NBCMI-certified Russian interpreter and translator with over 10 years of experience. She specializes in immigration, medicine and life sciences.
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Tram Bui
Ms. Tram Bui is a Vietnamese refugee who came to the US when she was 6 years old. She has a BA in Social Ecology, Pre-law from the University of California, Irvine. She is a Vietnamese National Board Certified Medical Interpreter who has been working in the field for 16 years. Before interpreting, she taught 2nd and 3rd grade in the Riverside Unified School District then taught 5 years of ESL in Mesa Public Schools in Mesa, AZ. She served as Member-at- large then Vice President of the Arizona Translators and Interpreters, Inc. She is a voting member of the American Translators Association.
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Karena Poupard, MS, NIC, QMHI
Karena Poupard has been a professional interpreter for 20 years. As a daughter of Deaf parents and raised in a culturally Deaf family, including a Deaf brother and three Deaf aunts, all of whom sign fluently in American Sign Language (ASL), she became passionate in her career choices. As a native user of ASL she identifies and connects with the Deaf community, which inspired her to further her education in the area of ASL, Deafness and Interpreting. She began interpreting in the educational system in 2000, and then decided to begin her educational journey in 2004 towards becoming a professional interpreter.
She has since graduated with three degrees. She obtained her Associate Degree from Spartanburg Community College (SCC) in 2006 in ASL/English Interpreting. Karena then received her Bachelor’s degree in 2012 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in Professions in Deafness. She then received her Masters degree in 2015 from the University of North Florida (UNF) in ASL/English Interpreting/Pedagogy. Since receiving her Master’s Degree, Karena has began a teaching career at the collegiate level and is currently teaching ASL and interpreting at USC Upstate and Converse College. Karena has been interpreting in the community at large in multiple settings over the past 20 years and has 10 years of Video Relay Service (VRS) experience. Karena has also mentored emerging interpreters in ASL/English interpreting. She is passionate about her field and teaching and hopes to continue working with USC Upstate in creating a program area for signed language interpreting.
How do I prove my language proficiency?
You will be asked to provide evidence of language proficiency after reserving your seat. There are multiple ways to prove your language proficiency. For example, if you needed to prove your proficiency in Spanish, you can use any one of the following options:
- A high school degree from a Spanish-speaking country
- Extensive college classes with Spanish as a medium for the majority of the coursework
- Significant work experience using Spanish
- A language proficiency test (we offer proficiency tests in 100+ languages for $75 each - see link below)
Overview of the Curriculum
Week One
- Introduction to Healthcare Interpretation
- Overview of the United States Healthcare System
- Modes of Interpretation
- Note-Taking
- Ethical Scenarios, Group Discussions, and Simulation Training
- Medical Terminology:
- Prefixes, Suffixes, and Etymology
- Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Organ Systems
- Primary Care
Week Two
- Becoming a Certified Interpreter: An Overview of the CCHI & NBCMI Exams
- Interpreter Standards of Practice & Self-care
- Roles of an Interpreter
- Common Mistakes to Avoid as an Interpreter
- Ethical Scenarios, Group Discussions, and Simulation Training
- Medical Terminology:
- Respiratory System
- Circulatory System
- Endocrine System
Week Three
- The Intricacies of Managing an Interpretation Encounter
- Detailed Breakdown of Ethical Standards in Interpretation Part One
- Ethical Scenarios, Group Discussions, and Simulation Training
- Medical Terminology:
- Nervous System
- Digestive System
- Reproductive Health
Week Four
- Detailed Breakdown of Ethical Standards in Interpretation Part 2
- Mediums of Interpretation
- Legal Regulation of Linguistic Services & Civil Rights
- Ethical Scenarios, Group Discussions, and Simulation Training
- Medical Terminology:
- Skin, Muscle, and Bones
- Palliative Care and Pain Medicine
- Infectious Disease & Immunology
Week Five
- Detailed Breakdown of Ethical Standards in Interpretation Part 3
- Ethical Scenarios, Group Discussions, and Simulation Training
- Medical Terminology:
- General Surgery & Trauma
- Oncology
- Psychiatry & Mental Health
- Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy
- Questions & Answers
Final Exam
The final exam will be offered 1 week after training is completed, giving students plenty of time to study and review.
If the final exam time does not work for the student, a more convenient time can be arranged for free.
The final exam will consist of multiple choice and written questions. Students must score 80% or above to receive their certificate of completion.