1. You arrive for an interpreting assignment at a public hospital, in the oncology outpatients department.

1. What is meant by a public and a private hospital? (provide at least TWO characteristics for each)
2. Name FOUR specialist areas of medicine which you can expect to find in a hospital AND one of the specialists linked to each area.

2.

Your LOTE client has not yet arrived, so you make yourself known to the receptionist. As you do so, you notice the pump-pack of hand sanitiser on the counter, and the notice asking that everyone use it on arrival. You use the sanitiser, then sit down to wait for the client. You see the client when she arrives: she is a woman in her late sixties and is accompanied by her husband. The couple sit down in the waiting area, and you notice that they have not used the hand sanitiser.

Provide THREE examples of standard safety and hygiene requirements specific to a medical environment of which an interpreter should be aware in any interpreting assignment.

3.

You approach the couple and introduce yourself. The husband takes you aside and tells you (in English) that your services will not be required, as he will interpret for his wife himself since his English is adequate and he has certain concerns about the consultation. He tells you that in their culture the word cancer is never mentioned to the patient as it is something to be ashamed of and would also be devastating for his wife to know. If you go ahead and interpret for them, he asks you to refer to it as a serious illness in the case that the doctors results indicate that she has cancer.

1. Outline the general roles and responsibilities of the various health care professionals who would have been involved in attending to this patient (provide THREE concrete points).
2. Discuss the social, cultural and linguistic differences in approaches to patients and illness between the LOTE and English cultures (provide THREE examples).
3. Indicate how you would handle the husbands request to interpret for his wife himself and wanting to avoid the term cancer? Highlight whether in your case, there may also be gender issues in this particular assignment (address each of these aspects in 50-60 words).