SPRING 2021 | ISSUE 2
THE HUB
The official newsletter of the NBCMI
In this issue:
FROM OUR CHAIR
As fall is approaching, we reevaluate our hope for COVID to end, confronted with the surge of the highly contagious Delta variant. Scientists had warned for months that the Coronavirus was likely to become endemic and that herd immunity was increasingly unlikely. Hospitals again are overwhelmed across the country. The worst surges have so far been concentrated in Southern states with underwhelming vaccination numbers. More people in hospitals means more need for oxygen and Florida is seeing its water supply affected because of the need for gas to purify water. Coming back to school has been stressful, to say the least for parents and educators, with significant concerns for the student's health. Companies are working on numerous levels to move employees and consumers to get vaccinated.
Despite the concern about the disruption this pandemic keeps causing to all of us, and in particular to the Hispanic community across the country because of health inequity and vaccine misinformation, the celebration of the National Hispanic Heritage Month has started on September 15, 2021. "Every day more Latinos make a life in the United States and without a doubt, they leave their mark", The Latin Way magazine points out very accurately. And we can find many articles regarding all areas of contribution from prominent Latinx in this country. But I'm thinking of ordinary contributors.... Like us, the interpreters.
"The Latinx community has been the backbone of the US economy and is projected to be the largest driver of its growth over the coming decade. During this pandemic many Latinx workers have been shown to be even more critical in our most-needed sectors; Latinx represent the majority of essential workers, from farm fields to grocery stores to delivery jobs to education and caretaking. While we might applaud their contributions during this crisis, for many, showing up to work was not a choice", remarks New America.org.
The untold stories from the interpreter community of sacrifices and pain, losing loved ones, witnessing disparities, watching patients die, and still come back to work in the frontline every single day, have been a demonstration of resilience, solidarity, professionalism, and a high spirit beyond words. And for all you are and how you represent the NBCMI, we salute and celebrate you for your significant silent contributions to healthcare in this country. You mean the world to our LEP patients and families—they have a voice because of you and are lost in translation without you.
We need to keep up with the good work and contributions and keep fighting for recognition as part of the healthcare team. Please join us in this fight for professional recognition through certification and recertification. Certification demonstrates that you meet the standards and levels of competency and the commitment to patient safety. Maintaining certification shows that you as a Medical Interpreter professional are continually improving and refining your knowledge and skills which enhanced credibility and benefit all of us as a professional community.
Let me close this letter in high spirits, because "tough situations build strong people". This special issue is dedicated to you as we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month and Interpreter's and Translator's Day!! Be proud of yourself and thank you for all you do even through adversity!
 |
Sincerely,
Xiomara Armas, CMI, BSBA, NBCMI Chair |
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
SEPTEMBER CELEBRATIONS
|
September 15th - October 15th
"We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success."
https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/.
When we think of Hispanic Heritage Month, we instinctively think of trailblazers, influencers, whose legacies are cemented in history: Cezar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Roberto Clemente, Sonia Sotomayor, Antonia Novello, Julia Alvarez, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Let us look beyond just who is celebrated and notable and look to the everyday champions who inspire us not just as Hispanics but also as interpreters, translators, linguists, as frontline workers... as people.
|
 |
|
September 30th
"International Translation Day is meant as an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding and cooperation, contributing to development and strengthening world peace and security."
- United Nations.
To echo the UN, this day is meant to be a tribute to the work we do as language professionals. I dare go farther to include ALL language professionals across all fields; medical, court, education, community, and translation, this day is for US.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-translation-day
|
 |
 |
Gustavo R. Negrete, CMI-Spanish
Secretary, NBCMI |
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
SPECIAL PROMOTION TO CELEBRATE
https://nbcmi.memberclicks.net/order-your-badge
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
PLACES WE HAVE BEEN
LEO 2021 |
"NBCMI was also proud to sponsor LEO's (Linguistic Education Online) Third International Virtual Conference. This conference featured a variety of topics like The Decennial Census 101, Voice-Over Skills, Acquiring Transcription Skills, learning about self-care for interpreters, and many more. Notably, seasoned attorney, researcher and educator Bruce Adelson deciphered the meaning of the upcoming Census data and its potential inaccuracies due to the lack of public participation. Groups of talented panelists discussed the future of the interpreter's profession in light of the pandemic ending and changes being brought about by the current presidential administration. One notable point of discussion was that while conference interpreters lost income under lockdowns, consecutive one-on-one interpreting in the US continued to grow." Gulya Shigabutdinova, Director, NBCMI
|
CHOA 2021 |
"CHOA conference was very informative. It presents audience with great sessions. NBCMI was honored to be part of this conference and participated in the raffle to support our interpreting community." Maggie Hong, Vicechair, NBCMI
|
Paying the Way Conference 2021 |
"The National Board had the privilege of both attending and presenting at Massachusetts Medical Interpreter Training's 2021 virtual conference "Paving the Way to Health Care Access." At this conference, attendees had an opportunity to learn about the legal precedents that brought healthcare interpreting to the point where it is now. Considering the hurdles of freelancing, interpreters could learn about the importance of diversifying and different ways to do it. Speech and language pathologists shared important facts about speech disorders and their implications for healthcare interpreters." Gulya Shigabutdinova, Director, NBCMI
|
LLAC 2021 |
"The conference had a special focus on the roles of advocates, policymakers, service providers, community advocates, interpreters, and translators in advocating for and implementing language access systems, processes and practices rooted in equity and inclusion. We had the opportunity to participate and support this effort by presenting the session 'How to become a Certified or Credentialed Medical Interpreter'" Anonymous
|
IMIA 2021 |
"IMIA conference's platform was definitely the best of the year. The layout was both beautiful and easy to navigate. It offered great presentations and attendees had access to recordings of the sessions afterwards. This was a great learning opportunity." Maggie Hong, Vicechair, NBCMI
|
NATI 2021 |
"The NATI virtual conference was stellar. The conference theme was 'Together Towards Tomorrow', very well suited for this conference where there were presentations on various topics such as, translation, ethical dilemmas, non-interpreter perspective, navigating hybrid proceedings, and ,of course, credentialing as an interpreter. Can't wait till next years conference." Anonymous
|
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
UPCOMING EVENTS
 |
We hope to see you at ATA 62, October 27th - 30th. This event is a live hybrid event, in-person and virtual. We invite you to join us as our Secretary, Gustavo Negrete, presents our programs and to visit our exhibitor booth in person (#3) and virtually to have a nice chat and for us to answer any questions you may have.
Registration link
https://ata62.org/registration/
|
 |
The NBCMI is a proud sponsor of the 18th annual MATI Conference. This is a virtual event and we encourage everyone to attend. Look for our vice-chair, Maggie Hong, who will be in attendance and will be happy to chat with you.
|
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
MEET AND GREET: NEW BOARD MEMBERS
 |
Meet our Public Member, Dr. Rebekah L. Dailey, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CEN, LSSGB
In our first meeting as a team, Dr. Dailey wowed us with her passion for advocacy. She is currently the Nurse Manager of Vascular Surgery at a Fairfax, VA hospital where she implemented a key interpreter services initiative that included telephone and video remote systems, quick-dial codes to connect directly to translation services, and educating staff on the usage and importance of the service. We are so lucky to have Dr. Rebekah L. Dailey. With eight years of healthcare experience, offering multi-specialty clinical knowledge coupled with her passion for developing and growing healthcare professionals and teams; we do not doubt that she will be an asset to our team and the interpreting community.
|
 |
Meet Luz Doynel-Thompson, Spanish and Portuguese Certified Medical Interpreter, Technical Translator, Conference Interpreter and Qualified Legal Interpreter
It was very apparent from our first official Board meeting with Ms. Doynel-Thompson that she loves what she does, what we as language professionals do; facilitate communication, broker (culturally), advocate, observe accuracy and all of the things we interpreters do. She is currently a Language and Cultural Specialist II at a prestigious children's hospital in Los Angeles, CA.
|
 |
Meet our newly minted Industry Representative, Dr. Ying Shi, PhD, MS, BS, CMI-Mandarin
Dr. Ying Shi has twenty-four years of experience in the fields of interpreting and translation. In fact, Dr. Shi was an subject matter expert (SME) who contributed to the design and development of the National Certification Test for the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters. She has vast knowledge and experience in administration, management, curriculum writing, test development and many more facets of our beautiful profession. We cannot wait to learn from her and increase access to quality medical interpretation for all.
|
 |
Meet Javier Chavez, CMI-Spanish, CHI-Spanish, MA, MS, BA, BS
A Texas native, Mr. Chavez is the Language Services Supervisor of a healthcare system spanning two states, coordinating interpretation and translation services. No minor feat. He is a proponent and supporter of certification. The National Board welcomes him and we are more than confident he will help in the advancement of our profession.
|
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
HUB-CMI
Do you know about the Hub-CMI?
The Hub-CMI credential was launched in May 2020. This credential was developed for medical interpreters of any language as a national standard to establish mastery of medical terminology and specialties, cultural competencies, and sound ethical judgement.
The Hub-CMI is a credential that demonstrates a baseline level of competency and fundamental knowledge in the medical interpreter profession. The Hub-CMI is a credential which is based on a written exam in English and does not carry a language distinction in the same way the CMI certification does, but certainly open doors for interpreters which target language is not offered for full certification.
Currently, we have more than 700 Hub-CMI's in our registry and the numbers keep growing every day! Most organizations require interpreters to have a credential before using a professional title. Once interpreters pass the written exam, they are granted the Hub-CMI credential. If a person successfully passes the oral exam and earns that certification, they have shown they are competent and possess the knowledge, skills and abilities inherent in attaining a certification and are granted the CMI-Spanish (or CMI-Mandarin, CMI-Cantonese, CMI-Korean, CMI-Russian or CMI-Vietnamese).
For our credentialed and certification holders, a professional title is very important and there is a well-deserved distinction between the credential level and a certificate program. Display the Hub-CMI proudly and correctly!
 |
Casita Wild
Operations Manager, NBCMI |
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
CEU REVIEW
We love our CMIs! For the fastest CEUs review, please follow the recommendations below:
In the section under Submit Payment and CEUs for Recertification, you can pay and upload your documents. It is helpful to us if you scan several certificates into a few pdf files so there is enough space for all of them. The payment will not run without at least one document upload. If you run out of space, just log out and log back in again for another page.
Please note: If you forget your username and you set up a new profile, it will delay your CEUs review by two weeks. Instead of setting up a new profile to make your payment, please contact [email protected]
Next, follow the instructions for re-setting your password if needed. When you get to My Profile, you will see your name tag. Under the name tag, click on Upload Files. When you are finished uploading, click "Next" at the bottom of the page, then "Submit" on the next page. You will not be able to see what you uploaded, but we will see them from our administrative end.
 |
Upload Conference CEUs |
Most conferences require both a CE attendance sheet of the workshops you attended, along with an attendance certificate which is provided by the conference organizers. For virtual conferences, speaker initials are not required on the CE attendance sheet. The IMIA CE attendance sheet can be downloaded from the renewal page of our website.
Please note: The IMIA CE attendance sheet is only for conferences, not for listing certificates you have earned.
Links for IMIA CEUs
For workshops: https://imiaweb.org/education/trainingnotices.asp
For webinars: https://www.imiaweb.org/education/learningseries.asp
The webinars are $25 each for non-members but are free of charge to IMIA members.
Thank you very much!
 |
Beverly North, M.S., Registrar
The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters |
FALL 2021 | ISSUE 2
INTERESTING ARTICLES
|
