News from Felicity Ratway
Since graduating from the ITS program, I have become a state Certified Health Care interpreter with the Oregon Health Authority and a nationally Certified Medical Interpreter through NBMCI. I serve on the Oregon Council on Health Care Interpreters, a body of subject matter experts that advises the Oregon Health Authority on matters related to health care interpreting, and am currently chairing the Advocacy and Legislative Committee for this Council. Along with other interpreters, I helped draft a bill to allow health care interpreters working as independent contractors to unionize and founded a union for freelance health care interpreters across the state of Oregon. I am now on the bargaining team and we are in the process of negotiating our first contract!
During the pandemic, I helped interpreters get PPE. This included creating a request form, getting PPE from counties statewide, wrangling volunteers to help with distribution, and distributing PPE to interpreters. Based on feedback from fellow interpreters, patients, CCOs and other stakeholders, I helped draft a bill (House Bill 2359) to make sure that patients have access to credentialed interpreters in compliance with existing state law that has not been enforced in the past. I am also currently pursuing a doctorate degree in public health with Oregon State University, and I am developing a training program for health care interpreters as a graduate research assistant. I teach continuing education courses for interpreters, and have presented at a variety of conferences.
Articles about the PPE effort:
