Especially when the patient has never seen a stethoscope before.

"One man, who only spoke Dogrib, wanted to pull his (intravenous) tubes out," says the Stanton Regional Hospital's language services co-ordinator, Linda McDonald. "He didn't want to leave or to create a large kerfuffle. He just wanted his moccasins."

Another man told a translator that he was in for a "checkup." He was really hospitalized to get stomach tests to check for ulcers.

When alone in a sanitized and institutionalized hospital room, it's amazing how small comforts assume a new level of significance.

That's why Stanton is increasingly its efforts to become more culturally sensitive when it comes to the people it serves.

"Culture is shared and learned here," said translator Sarah Cleary, who's originally from Deline. "It's really a beautiful institution."

Aside from posting a photo of Dene prophet Louis Ayah in the room of an elder, the hospital now has a collection of 20 feathers, which were donated Jan. 27.

Kerchiefs, a common necessity for many women, could be on the way within the next month.

"It's a security blanket," Cleary explained. "It keeps their dreams and their head warm."

"We tell staff, 'Don't tell her to take it off. For this elder, it gives her comfort.'"

There are about 35 casual translators working with Stanton, two of them full-time. Eleven territorial languages are represented, along with Asian and European languages.

And Inuktitut, which will become the first working syllabic language of any government in the Western World, is growing stronger each year.

It describes, as languages should, the traditional aspects of Inuit life in a richly expressive way.

"There are no English words for many Inuktitut words," Cleary said, describing some of the difficulty in translation.

The language is about survival and conveys perceptions of the future as less certain than would English. For example, instead of saying, "When we eat," it is more common to say "If we eat."

Patients face real cultural differences aside from language difficulties.

There can be different ways of asking for things and different things people are public about.

"We're the messengers," Cleary said. "And we're cultural teachers."

Still, a handbook of medical terms, such as body parts, is available in Inuktitut and it's being translated into Dogrib and North Slavey.

There is also a Inuktitut and English video in the works, set to be finished by March 31. It could be shown in various community centres before elders arrive in Yellowknife.

Meanwhile, Inuktitut is the main language needing translation services at health centres and hospitals in Nunavut.

At the Baffin Regional Hospital, Towata Thibaudeau said patients coming from small communities such as Cape Dorset or Pangnirtung often rely on translators during their hospital stay.

Thibaudeau said these patients are usually elders who can be frightened by the prospect of a hospital stay and it is part of her job to make the patients feel comfortable.

"There are quite a few people who come here who only speak Inuktitut," said translator Nora Niptanatiak at the Cambridge Bay Health Centre. "They come from Bathurst Inlet or Bay Chimo."

Translation is needed most often when specialists come to the centre, Niptanatiak said. And it is usually a simple case of translating instructions on how to take medications and general advice.