NEWS

Spanish course offered to medical students helps break down barriers to health care

By BERNADETTE GILLIS
UNC School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- As the number of Latinos living in North Carolina continues to rise, the need to address issues unique to the Latino community is becoming more important. One of those issues is the challenge of overcoming language and cultural barriers when visiting the doctor.

To help break down some of the barriers to health care, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine is currently offering a medical Spanish course to its medical students.

The course, divided into two intermediate levels, teaches medical students with some knowledge of Spanish how to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients. Having such a skill is becoming vital for doctors, said Dr. Marco Alemán, assistant professor of medicine and the course director.

"By 2030, the Latino population will be largest minority in the United States," he said. "We need to serve this population."

Two years ago, two medical school students, Heather Crouse and Rebecca Sands, recognized this need and pushed to get a medical Spanish course started at the School of Medicine. "As physicians, it’s our responsibility to relate to all patients," said Crouse. "We thought that creating this class would be a beginning for students to understand Latino language and culture."

Even though other Spanish language courses are available through the university, this course focuses on grammar and medical terminology the students will use as medical professionals. "Basic Spanish courses are not geared toward medicine," said Tatiana Gόmez, who teaches the first-level course. “In this course, students learn how to use the language to treat patients.”

The course also focuses on Latino culture, which Elizabeth Tolman, who teaches the second-level course, said is an important component. "We teach the culture part of the course in categories, such as respect between the provider and the patient and the importance of building trust," Tolman said. "Learning the culture will help the students communicate with patients on a person-to-person level."

Alemán added that basic issues, such as the importance of family, are emphasized. "For example, the instructors teach the students that when making decisions about health issues, some Latino patients may be reluctant to follow their physicians’ advice. We tell students that it’s not that the patients don’t want to proceed, but that they may want to include their family members in the decision-making process."

Another component of the course includes role-playing sessions, where students get to perform histories and diagnose illnesses on standardized patients.

"We try to come up with situations the student may encounter, such as a patient who is about to have a child," Alemán said. "They are very powerful sessions because they allow the students to practice in a safe environment."

The medical Spanish course aims to improve the health care provided to Latinos, Alemán said. "We hope our students will become advocates for the Latino community wherever they might be in their career. We want to teach all our students that as they communicate with patients they have to learn to get to know their patient as a person, not as a disease."

Even though students do not receive academic credit for the course, the instructors and students say they have been able to see dramatic improvement in the students’ Spanish speaking skills. To see how much their skills have improved, the students are given a test at the beginning of the semester and then again once the course is over.

"Recently, beginners who took the Spanish class showed a 38 percent improvement in knowledge and intermediates showed a 61 percent improvement," said Sands.

Many School of Medicine students have been able to use their skills serving as Spanish interpreters at the Student Health Action Coalition Clinic in Carrboro through the student-run organization SALSA. The clinic, coordinated by students from the schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health and social work, provides services to local indigent residents, including a free weekly medical clinic.

Alemán said he hopes the course develops into a medical Spanish program that would include a course for beginners. Currently a beginning Spanish course is offered to all health affairs students through the student organization, LaCharla, but the course does not focus on medical Spanish alone.

He said he also hopes the program will offer academic credit along with a clerkship elective and cultural experience at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo in Peru. "If this course becomes a credit course it will become validated," Alemán said. "That is our goal."

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School of Medicine contact: Tom Hughes at (919) 966-6047