Reminders

Please be mindful of your scope as a Health Scholar. If you are unsure about your scope, please let the staff know and email your Department Coordinator for clarification. Please keep in mind that as a Health Scholar, you role is to escalate patient's needs and not to solve patients needs.

Please note that it is outside of your scope of practice to translate/interpret any medical information. While you may feel comfortable speaking another langue, only a trained professional can interpret and translate medical information on behalf of patients.

There are many risks related to translating/interpreting on behalf of a patient without the proper training, please see below for some of these risks:

Misinterpretation leading to incorrect diagnosis and treatment plan
Miscommunication between provider and patient increasing the burden of care for patients
Inaccurate documentation of health related information
Possible HIPAA violation

A simple way to respond to a request from staff to assist with interpreting is:

"Unfortunately that is outside my scope of practice, can I assist with a different task?"

"While I do speak the language fluently, I am not trained to interpret medical information and do not feel comfortable completing this task. Can I assist you with calling a SJO interpreter instead?"

Skills/Training refresher:

Discharging patients: Please pay close attention to where the staff wants you to discharge the patients.

- You need staff approval and confirmation to discharge a patient.
- Once you assist the patient to wheelchair, go to the Nurse's Station to confirm with staff regarding discharging that specific patient, and to a specific area
- Discharging areas:
  - Discharge Lounge: this is located on the first floor next to the staff elevator. There will be a staff member to receive the patient as well as their chart. Staff will take care of the rest and your task here is over once you confirm again with the Unit's staff that you discharged the patient to the lounge.
  - Discharging at the main lobby: This is located right of side of the lobby, next to the main entrance to the hospital. obtain a discharge slip if provided by staff. You are required to remain with the patient until the patient's family is there to pick up the patient. Please avoid helping the patient get into their cars as you can be a liability in case an incident occurs. Make sure that you DO NOT take patient's chart. Patient's chart remains at the unit.

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