Prerequisites for the certificate:

• Students must pass an entrance test for bilingual fluency (English and Spanish)
• High School diploma or GED
• Basic computer skills and access to the Internet

Currently there is work available for Health Care Interpreters on a full-time, part-time, or freelance basis, in a hospital setting, a physician's office, a health care facility, or related medical organization. Salaries range from $33,000 to $40,000 a year.

Those with experience in medical interpretation, but no prior training, are eligible to enroll in this course without being in the Certificate Program.

Level 1 - Introduction to Spanish/English Health Care Interpreting

This course provides a basic understanding of the role of the interpreter in health care settings. Students learn skills and techniques used in consecutive interpreting,such as managing the flow of communication; recognizing and dealing with ethical issues and conflicts; active listening; memory-building and recall; and checking for accuracy. Topics covered include the culture of American health care; roles and expectations of clinicians; and health beliefs and practices in the Spanish-speaking community. Role-playing and other exercises will be used to build your interpreting skills, your medical vocabulary, and your personal bilingual glossary of words and terms frequently encountered in health care interpreting.

FALL 2012
Saturday
9:00 AM –2:00 PM
9 Sessions; 45 Hours
ME 112A-1SD   $950

Orientation dates:

• SATURDAY , MARCH 10 9:00 AM –2:00 PM
• SATURDAY , MARCH 17 9:00 AM –2:00 PM
• SATURDAY , MARCH 24 9:00 AM –2:00 PM
• SATURDAY , MARCH 31 9:00 AM –2:00 PM

To schedule an orientation or speak to the program director, please call Raymond Macleish at 212-650-7312 or email rmacleish@ccny.cuny.edu.

Level 2 - Healthcare Concepts and Terminology for Interpreters (40 hours)

Prerequisite: Level 1

This course focuses on the specialized vocabulary of health care, including English-language terms used to describe the human body's parts and systems, as well as the name of diseases, common medications, treatments, medical equipment and procedures. The textbook for this course will be Quick and Easy Medical Terminology, 6th Edition, by Peggy Leonard. This textbook/workbook contains extensive exercises, to help students learn the English terms introduced, with an emphasis on recognizing root words from Latin and Greek that recurs often in technical terms. Textbooks not included.