Interpreter Care Series: Well-Being, Chaplains, Culture & Trauma Prep - March 2026

In today’s complex health care environment, effective care requires attention to the whole person: body, mind, and spirit, while also bridging cultural and linguistic divides. This presentation highlights the essential roles of chaplains and medical interpreters in fostering patient-centered care. Chaplains provide emotional support, ethical guidance, and spiritual care, yet many clinicians remain uncertain about how to engage their expertise. Similarly, medical interpreters not only facilitate communication across languages and cultures, but also serve in high-stakes, emotionally charged settings such as trauma centers and emergency departments. These professionals face unique challenges, including vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and the demand to remain composed amid “controlled chaos.” By integrating concepts of culture, diversity, and cultural competence into practice, health care teams can better collaborate with chaplains and interpreters to ensure clarity, compassion, and inclusivity.

This session equips participants with strategies to recognize and utilize the strengths of these care partners, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and build supportive networks that sustain resilience. Ultimately, empowering health care teams to embrace cultural and spiritual dimensions of care strengthens both patient outcomes and professional well-being.

Instructor: Maria Schwieter

Class Schedule: Tuesday, March 17, 2026, and Thursday, March 19, 2026

Timetable: 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET (3:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT)

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize and manage vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue, using self-care, peer support, and debriefing to maintain well-being. They will understand the trauma center environment and practice accuracy, emotional control, and resilience under pressure. 
• Learn the chaplain’s role in spiritual care, crisis response, staff support, and collaboration, and how partnering with chaplains and colleagues can reduce burnout, improve communication, and strengthen patient care.
• Build cultural competence by defining and applying key concepts such as culture, diversity, and cultural relativism, and practice strategies for respectful, effective cross-cultural relationships.

CEUs: 

• American Translators Association: 4 ATA CEPs
• Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI): 4 CE hours
• International Medical Interpreters Association: 0.4 IMIA/NBCMI CEUs
• Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf: 0.4 RID CEUs* 

*Please note that there is an additional $20 processing fee, per program, for RID CEUs. To process your RID CEUs, please email your certificate of completion to our RID sponsor, Linguist Education Online, at admin@linguisteducationonline.com.

Technical Requirements:

• Desktop or laptop computer (recommend i5 processor or above) with webcam (The course may not be taken on a tablet, phone or other small device.)
• Zoom (Updated Version)
• Chrome or Firefox (Updated Version)
• Quality headset with boom mounted microphone 
• High speed internet (minimum 5 mbps upload/10 download) 
• Ethernet cable (Must connect computer directly to router. Minimum quality CAT6)*
• Ethernet to USB adapter (if needed)*
• External Monitor*

*Recommended but not required

Select Live Training Policies

This course is limited to 25 participants. Once the course has reached capacity, those interested will be added to a waitlist in the order in which their inquiry is received.

Attendance Policy for Live Online Training Programs

In order to receive a course completion certificate, participants in our live online programs must submit all applicable documentation; complete all coursework requirements; be visible on their webcam for the entire program; and complete the applicable attendance requirement:

• For live online programs shorter than 10 hours, participants must attend all live scheduled hours.
• For live online programs 10 hours or longer, participants may miss no more than 10% of the total live scheduled hours. (For example, attendance of 18 hours is required for a 20-hour program; attendance of 36 hours is required for a 40-hour program.)

Disruptive Behavior Policy

In order to uphold the collaborative nature of our online training programs, onboardings, support sessions and webinars, Cross-Cultural Communications reserves the right to remove any participant for abusive or aggressive behavior, spoken or written, towards CCC staff, trainers or other participants. We recognize that the past few years have been difficult for everyone. However, our participants, trainers and staff have the right to a safe and respectful learning and working environment. We thank you for your understanding.

Training Participant Information Release

By registering for our live online training programs, you agree to allow Cross-Cultural Communications, LLC to share your contact information with participants in the same training session for purposes of creating a collaborative online training experience for all participants. Should you have concerns or not wish to have your contact information shared by CCC, prior to the training session please email info@cultureandlanguage.net.

Cross-Cultural Communications records its live online training sessions for quality control purposes. Recordings are not shared with anyone outside of the organization or training session.