In this article, we analyze the interactional work of interpreters from
the viewpoint of patient-centered care. Interpreters can support
patient-centered care by both translational and non-translational
actions. They can calibrate the talk in rendition so as to benefit the
intersubjective understanding of all parties, and can also help doctors
and patients understand each other better through various embodied
means. Our analysis draws on a multimodal analysis of interaction (see
e.g. Goodwin, 2018; Mondada, 2016) and is based on a detailed analysis
of three primary care consultations video recorded at a Finnish health
center. In each consultation, the patient is a refugee or an asylum
seeker and the interpreter is a professional community interpreter. We
demonstrate three practices that seem to enhance patient-centeredness.
Firstly, we show how interpreters can balance between direct
interpretation and mediation to produce a clear yet precise rendition of
turns at talk. Secondly, we demonstrate how interpreters display
recipiency and provide interactional space for the patient by producing
response particles that encourage the patient to continue talking.
Thirdly, we illustrate how embodied co-operation in interpreted
consultations makes the renditions more intelligible and tangible for
all the parties involved in interpreter-mediated interaction.