Gloria Walsh

I have been working as a certified healthcare interpreter for 5 years, though I've been helping people communicate across languages for about 15 years. Most of the time, I work remotely from my computer with my headset, helping patients and doctors communicate when the patient doesn't speak English and the doctor doesn't speak Spanish. They call me, and I show up in a video call on a tablet that the provider gives to the patient, and I am there hearing what the doctor has to say and telling it to the patient, and if the patient has some questions, I am there too to communicate it to the doctor. I work with my heart - sometimes I receive the bad news first and I have to communicate it to the patient, so sometimes it's not that fun, but I love what I do. I feel empathy for the patient because I've had to interpret incredibly difficult moments, like telling a pregnant woman that her baby's heart had stopped. As a mother, I had to find the best way to tell her, and I was trying to talk to her with my heart, trying to help her understand. In this job, I work with my heart more than for money - I feel so happy to help people communicate with the doctors and the doctors communicate with their patients. I am originally from Venezuela and have been here for 15 years. I am a lawyer with a master's degree in law from my country, and I started in this field after working as a nanny for doctors, taking care of newborns and preemies. Since the doctors spoke English, I was helping them communicate with people who didn't speak Spanish, and that's how I started thinking about doing this professionally. I wanted to stay in the healthcare field in some way, and that's why I got the certification as an interpreter. My next step is getting the legal interpreter certification since I am a lawyer - it's going to be less difficult for me to learn the legal words so I can interpret in a court.