ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how the meaning of Quality and Equality of Care (QEC) is understood and enacted through individual's management of communicative goals in interpreter-mediated encounters. It discusses the meanings and social constructions of patient autonomy and also examines the performance of interpreters as co-diagnosticians through a normative approach. In the United States, patient autonomy emerged in the 1960s in the overall atmosphere of anti-paternalism and redefined beneficence as medical paternalism. As a result, an ideal patient is an informed patient who is capable and willing to assume all responsibilities in their illness events. Interpreter's active involvement in provider-patient interactions, the interpreters in his study adopt a variety of strategies aiming to improve patient's health literacy. English-speaking patients also struggle with health literacy. However, researchers have found that patient's active participation in provider-patient interactions can lead to an increase in provider's patient-centered communication and better coordination between provider's and patient's goals.