Table 1.
Demographic profile of 52 interpreters responding to the survey at three San Francisco Bay Area Hospitals, 2008.
| N = 52 (%) | |
|---|---|
| Demographics | |
| Age (mean, median) | 50, 50 |
| Women | 34 (65) |
| Born outside the U.S. | 44 (86) |
| Training and experience | |
| Interpreting as primary job | 49 (94) |
| Years of interpreting experience (mean, SD) | 10 (8) |
| Education | |
| Some high school | 1 (2) |
| High school diploma | 2 (4) |
| Some college | 12 (23) |
| College graduate | 22 (42) |
| Some postgraduate training | 12 (23) |
| Vocational/technical school | 3 (6) |
| Formal training in interpretation | 47 (90) |
| Formal classroom training | 27 (57) |
| Certificate program | 34 (72) |
| Language used for interpreting (most common)a | |
| Spanish | 22 (42) |
| Cantonese | 21 (40) |
| Mandarin | 19 (36) |
| Vietnamese | 10 (19) |
| Russian | 6 (12) |
| Number of encounters per week (N = 48) | |
| Fewer than 10 | 2 (4) |
| 10–49 | 18 (38) |
| 50–99 | 19 (40) |
| 100 or over | 9 (19) |
| Experience with remote modalities | |
| Telephonic interpretation | |
| Ever used | 52 (100) |
| At least half of the time | 27 (52) |
| Some of the time or rarely | 25 (48) |
| VMI | |
| Ever used | 45 (87) |
| At least half of the time | 30 (67) |
| Some of the time or rarely | 15 (33) |
a
Not mutually exclusive.