Investigating empathy in interpreter-mediated simulated consultations: An explorative study

Objective

To explore i) the ways in which empathic communication is expressed in interpreter-mediated consultations; ii) the interpreter's effect on the expression of empathic communication.

Methods

We coded 9 video-recorded interpreter-mediated simulated consultations by using the Empathic Communication Coding System (ECCS) which we used for each interaction during interpreter-mediated consultations. We compared patients' empathic opportunities and doctors' responses as expressed by the patients and doctors and as rendered by the interpreters.

Results

In 44 of the 70 empathic opportunities there was a match between the empathic opportunities as expressed by the patients and as rendered by the interpreters. In 26 of the 70 empathic opportunities, we identified 5 shift categories (reduced emotion, omitted emotion, emotion transformed into challenge, increased challenge/progress, twisted challenge) in the interpreter's rendition to the doctor. These were accompanied by changes in the level of empathy and in the content of the doctors' empathic responses.

Conclusion

The interpreters' renditions had an impact on the patients' empathic opportunities and on the doctors' empathic responses in one third of the coded interactions.

Practice implications

Curricula with a focus on intercultural communication and/or empathy should consider the complexity of interpreter-mediated interaction and the interpreter's impact on the co-construction of empathy.