Medical Spanish for health care workers in the United States

[watermen]

This is actually a very big market in the US. With the increase of hispanic population, Spanish is changing our health care system. In the past, knowing English is more than sufficient. But this is not the case in today US health care system.

There are too many hispanic patients. Not being able to speak their language created a barrier in a doctor-patient relationship. Mistakes occur due to lack of understanding of the culture and language. Doctors are not able to treat patient fast enough due to these barriers. Lack of translator is also another problem. Not all health care providers have access to translator.

As a medical student, I realized that Hispanic patients are always at a disadvantage due to this language barrier. They may receive sub-standard care because no one understand them. Even when translators are available, there are circumstances where it is difficult to use a translator. This often happen in the operating room or an emergency department, it is always not possible to get the translator to arrive on time. Able to communicate with the patient immediately is certainly critical in saving the patient's live.

I therefore strongly suggest Spod101 to create a section called medical spanish for health care professionals. The goal is to enable any health care providers to learn Spanish in a relatively short period of time. Facilitate better delivery of health care in the United States.

I believe a lot of medical students, doctors, nurses etc will be interested if there is such a course. So far such kind of courses only exist on books. None of them are really efficient.

[Joseph]

Watermen,

Great idea! Definitely something that we will take into account. Let me ask you this: what kinds of situations do you think are the most common in the Medical Field, as pertaining to the use of the Spanish language? Or rather, being a med student, can you think of an exact moment when you wished that you knew how to say something specific in Spanish? Can you describe that situation? What did you want to say? Thanks for your input!

Chau,

Joseph

[watermen]

Watermen,

Great idea! Definitely something that we will take into account. Let me ask you this: what kinds of situations do you think are the most common in the Medical Field, as pertaining to the use of the Spanish language? Or rather, being a med student, can you think of an exact moment when you wished that you knew how to say something specific in Spanish? Can you describe that situation? What did you want to say? Thanks for your input!

Chau,

Joseph

Some patients just couldn't speak any English at all. Therefore, I couldn't understand them, they couldn't understand me as well. I have to get a translator.

I believe medical spanish is a bit different from regular spanish, as a health care provider, we should speak professionally. Just as Medical English is different from regular English.

In most case I would say, I wish to know how to greet Hispanic patient in Spanish. How to greet them professionally. How to ask the medical question in spanish. There are books on Medical Spanish, may be Spod101 can buy one copy and take a look at it. I may be able to help out too if you all are interested? But I don't know much Spanish...

[summerchick]

i definitely think we should have a medical section. in my spanish class our teacher totally bypassed the chapter about medical stuff. i think it would be very useful for many people. i plan to be a nurse and i know it would really help to me.

[Joseph]

This is really interesting and we'll definitely take it into account. It may be useful (for you and us) if we start making a list of topics/situations that would be covered in a Medical Spanish Series. Let me start by putting a few ideas out there:

Health Care Professional / Patient Relations:

What are your symptoms?
Do you have insurance?
When did this problem begin?
Are you currently taking any medications?
Who is your primary care physician?

OK. I'm sure for those of you who work in this profession, it will be obvious which questions are more / less useful, so let's try to add to this when we can.

Saludos,

Joseph

[watermen]

This is really interesting and we'll definitely take it into account. It may be useful (for you and us) if we start making a list of topics/situations that would be covered in a Medical Spanish Series. Let me start by putting a few ideas out there:

Health Care Professional / Patient Relations:

What are your symptoms?
Do you have insurance?
When did this problem begin?
Are you currently taking any medications?
Who is your primary care physician?

OK. I'm sure for those of you who work in this profession, it will be obvious which questions are more / less useful, so let's try to add to this when we can.

Saludos,

Joseph

Something like that. May be you can teach us how to say body parts and name of diseases in Spanish.

[Joseph]

Waterman,

This idea is really starting to intrigue me. I once worked with a Peruvian Infectious Diseases Specialist who was going to take his practical in the States, and, our classes consisted of role-playing. I was always the patient, and he just had to take a history. It was quite interesting though.

Anyway, I was thinking that someone in the Medical field would be more interested in bedside manners than the hard terminology, but you would know better than I would. So, why don't you list the body parts and diseases that you're interested in learning about in Spanish?

Thanks for your participation.

Joseph

[rodney]

Since this thread was started way back when, such a site now exists:

www.medicalspanishpodcast.com/

They have, or at least used to, some free material as well. It's a great site.