Translation and Beyond: Addressing the Emotional Labor and Well-Being of Healthcare Mediators

Abstract

Language and cultural barriers can compromise the quality of healthcare by generating misunderstandings that affect diagnosis, treatment, and patient satisfaction. As societies become increasingly multilingual, the need for professional language and cultural mediation is growing (Angelelli 2004; Gattiglia and Morelli 2022). Research has shown that emotional well-being is crucial to both mediator performance and care quality (Baraldi and Gavioli 2016; Curi et al. 2020). Both professional interpreters – though trained to maintain neutrality and emotional distance (Hsieh 2008) – and non-professional interpreters – e.g. family members or community brokers – tend to be deeply emotionally engaged. In both cases, exposure to patients’ suffering may lead to vicarious trauma, particularly in healthcare contexts (Du 2024). When mediators focus solely on meaning transfer, patients’ emotions risk being silenced, weakening empathic communication (Krystallidou et al. 2020). Drawing on multimodal ethnography, discourse analysis, and data from the THE (Tuscany Health Ecosystem) project, this article examines the emotional labor of language and cultural mediators within broader sociopolitical frameworks. Findings highlight the interplay of motivation, frustration, ethical dilemmas, and burnout in mediation work, emphasizing the need for targeted training that integrates medical language, AI-assisted tools, and emotional resilience, alongside institutional recognition of the mediators’ role and well-being.