Doctors Get Russian Dictionaries

TEL AVIV - Medical staff at Tel Aviv's Assuta Medical Center have been equipped with Russian-Hebrew dictionaries, in a bid to ease communication difficulties with immigrants.

Local doctors often encounter problems when attempting to communicate with new arrivals from the former Soviet Union, and particularly with older immigrants who do not speak any Hebrew.

In order to ensure language problems do not come in the way of proper medical care, hospital officials decided to publish the dictionary, which contains medical terms as well as other useful phrases.

The phrase book, which is currently being distributed among staff, includes terms related to the hospitalization process, medical care, and administrative matters. Numbers, days of the week, months of the year, color, and food items are also among the terms found in the guide.

The innovative project was edited by Hospital Deputy Director Arik Kahane and the medical center's graphic artist, Galia Mendelson.

The two first turned to medical staff for help in creating the phrase book, Mendelson says.

"We asked employees and call center attendants to make a list of terms commonly used when communicating with patients," she says.

Until now, language difficulties interfered with the treatment afforded to some patients, says Kahane.

"A patient who was told, using hand gestures, to fast before a surgery, thought he was supposed to eat," he says.

The new booklet includes tables, sketches, and photos, but it lacks one important component that would make it easier to use – an index. In addition, its relatively large size prevents it from easily fitting into pockets.

Doctors Get Russian Dictionaries

Tel Aviv hospital initiates move in bid to help medical staff communicate with immigrants.

By Moty Gal

TEL AVIV – Medical staff at Tel Aviv's Assuta Medical Center have been equipped with Russian-Hebrew dictionaries, in a bid to ease communication difficulties with immigrants.

Local doctors often encounter problems when attempting to communicate with new arrivals from the former Soviet Union, and particularly with older immigrants who do not speak any Hebrew.

In order to ensure language problems do not come in the way of proper medical care, hospital officials decided to publish the dictionary, which contains medical terms as well as other useful phrases.

The phrase book, which is currently being distributed among staff, includes terms related to the hospitalization process, medical care, and administrative matters. Numbers, days of the week, months of the year, color, and food items are also among the terms found in the guide.

The innovative project was edited by Hospital Deputy Director Arik Kahane and the medical center's graphic artist, Galia Mendelson.

The two first turned to medical staff for help in creating the phrase book, Mendelson says.

"We asked employees and call center attendants to make a list of terms commonly used when communicating with patients," she says.

Until now, language difficulties interfered with the treatment afforded to some patients, says Kahane.

"A patient who was told, using hand gestures, to fast before a surgery, thought he was supposed to eat," he says.

The new booklet includes tables, sketches, and photos, but it lacks one important component that would make it easier to use – an index. In addition, its relatively large size prevents it from easily fitting into pockets.