Introductory Medical Spanish Elective: Creating and Evaluating a Case-Based Course Compatible with an 18-Month Pre-Clinical Medical Curriculum

Vega, Taylor A.; Contag, Alec G.; Urbanowicz, Erin; Sanchez, Anthony; Martı́nez, Juan Carlos; Garcia, Amy M.; Ortega‐Loayza, Alex G.

doi:10.1007/s40670-020-01195-6

Cited by 1 publication

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As purported by numerous studies, a medical Spanish elective can be challenging to implement into the course curriculum as students present at differing baseline levels of listening comprehension and verbal fluency [17][18][19][20][21]. Moreover, there are limited studies analyzing efficacy of these courses with regard to the retention of course material and improvement in Spanish-speaking proficiency [22].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the study by Sadanand et al, improvements were seen across all domains with respect to performing the history and physical examination, with a mean increase of 1.39 (p < 0.001) [20]. Additionally, Vega et al demonstrated that beginner-level Spanish speakers had a remarkable trajectory, with a pre-course mean score increase from 0.53 to 3.4 (p = 0.001) [21]. Moreover, although the study conducted by Vela et al was not related to medical school curricula, it gave us insights into the proportion of bilingual individuals feeling uncomfortable acting as ad hoc interpreters [25].…”

Section: Student Comfortmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Five studies assessed the effectiveness of medical Spanish courses as per fluency, auditory comprehension, and student comfort [17][18][19][20][21] (Table 2). One study conducted was a survey among bilingual medical students assessing their level of comfort, unrelated to a medical Spanish curriculum [25] (Table 2).…”

Section: Current Trendmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three studies utilized a comfort scale as an outcome measure to examine Spanish curriculum efficacy [19][20][21]. All three studies unanimously agreed that confidence levels were significantly enhanced for students receiving formalized training in Spanish dialogue.…”

Section: Student Comfortmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we performed a scoping review to evaluate the current research on medical Spanish electives offered. Several studies have assessed the effectiveness of these courses with outcome measures such as verbal fluency and listening skills [17][18][19][20][21]. We propose solutions to increase the prevalence and efficacy of medical Spanish electives offered to students during their fourth year of clinical instruction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Patient Satisfaction in the Hispanic American Community

Kelson¹,

Nguyen²,

Chaudhry³

et al. 2022

Cureus

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Hispanic Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, with an ever-growing gap in the communicative capacity between patients and healthcare providers. This leads to linguistic marginalization and worse healthcare outcomes. There is an increasing need for Spanish literacy in healthcare professionals, including medical students. However, approximately half of medical schools don't offer a Spanish elective. We performed a scoping review of the literature to assess the relationship between medical Spanish electives, verbal fluency, auditory comprehension, and student comfort. This study was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar to evaluate articles on Spanish electives in medical schools. Nine articles met inclusion criteria. Almost all studies demonstrated benefit as per outcome measures assessed with statistical significance. The available literature supports the need for Spanish elective courses, with numerous advantages conferred, e.g. increased self-perceived knowledge about specific health issues in the Hispanic American community and reduction in inadvertent communication errors in the patientprovider-interpreter interaction. However, most of the reports analyzed exhibited numerous limitations that warrant future research studies in order to eliminate variables such as bias and issues with generalizability. The authors suggest that more medical schools offer virtual Spanish electives with a focus on empathetic language strategies and patient satisfaction.

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