ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores interpreter's communicative strategies that allow patients to be empowered and informed and to engage in medical encounters. It discusses how provider's communicative strategies may have unintended meanings and consequences in intercultural contexts. The literature on minority and language-discordant populations has noted that these patients are often marginalized in both the host society and healthcare settings. The book demonstrates how a normative approach can generate new research directions for bilingual health care to advance theories and improve practices. Providing practice recommendations grounded in evidence-based, theory-oriented research has always been one of the most fulfilling aspects of the author's scholarship. The book also discusses interpreter's communicative strategies that allow patients to be empowered and informed and to engage in medical encounters and how providers' communicative strategies may have unintended meanings and consequences in intercultural contexts.