Patient-Centred Translation and Communication

Book excerpt: In response to the growing importance and spread of patient-centred care, the need to empower patients and the trend towards democratising specialised knowledge in health care, this book puts patients centre stage and provides concepts, methods and learning materials to enhance effective communication with patients and relatives in health care settings. Opening chapters establish the conceptual and methodological framework needed to understand patient-centredness, the crucial role of context and culture, the range of communicative situations and text genres involved and the diversity of modes, formats and media in which patient-centred translation and communication take place. Subsequent chapters raise awareness of the importance of carefully defining the target audience and producing understandable and empathetic messages and provide analytical tools for making decisions in these three key areas. The concluding chapter offers avenues for research in patient-centred translation and communication with the hope of bridging the gap between practice and research and advancing this growing field of inquiry. Including activities, resources, summaries, further reading and pointers to further research in each chapter, this is the essential guide for all translators and interpreters, students and professionals working in this area of translation studies, health care and communication studies.