Certification, Employment, and Demands of the Job.

Medical Interpreters must now be certified in order to work as interpreters in most hospitals and clinics in the nation. Many health care organizations are asking their Medical Interpreters to take the National Certification Exam prior to the end of 2013 in order to retain employment. The International Medical interpreters Association and The National Board of Certified Medical Interpreters both proctor the national certification exam for medical interpreters.

According to tthe Bureau of labor Statistics job prospects for this inmdustry continues to expand and interpreters are in high demand.  The average entry level hourly rate fro interpreters is $20.82 per hour or about $43,300 per year. From 2010-2020 there will be and increase in opportunities for interpreters of about 42%.  This is a much faster growth than that of many other industries.

The percentage of interpreters in particular industries are as follow; 26% of interpreters were employed in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical fields.  Another 25% were employed in Education; State and Local, and Private sectors.  Interpreters in Healthcare and Social Services accounted for 13%. Lastly, 7% of all interpreters were employed in Government.

There are many that believe that this is a very good, stress free profession.  You'd be wrong; since interpreters must, at times, work long hours, and even skip coffee breaks and lunch breaks in order that there is coverage at their place of work.  In hospital settings it is not unsual to be paged to interpret 5 times or more while you are on a current assignment.  Conference interpreter use simultaneous interpreting which requires they keep up with a speaker and not miss a word.  This can be extremely stressful.  In most settings interpreters are required to perform statistical data entry, contact patients or clients, translate documents, and much more.  In other words interpreters have a full load while at work, they don't just simply interpret.

In a nut shell, although there are excellent job prospects one must be prepared academically, professionally, as well as, psychologically to meet the demands of this profession.