Grammar and vocabulary are not enough: a new perspective on how to teach Spanish to future doctors.

Jose Arriola Villafuerta and Dana Michlin

“¿Sabes si hay una capilla en el hospital?” is one of the many phrases we have heard and translated in the short time we have been medical students. As the coordinators of the Medical Spanish course at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, we had as an objective to teach students not only how to translate but also to understand phrases in a greater context. Knowing the translation for chapel/capilla is important, but we also wanted to teach them who their demographic is, as well as the cultural and personal reasons Hispanic patients might say these phrases. Hence, we tried to build a curriculum with classes focusing on teaching the Spanish language as well as cultural competency in relation to the Latino population.

Many of our students have some Latino heritage, while others are looking to further their Spanish-speaking abilities to be able to communicate with patients in their future careers. One of the things we did to engage our students in learning about the different cultural beliefs seen in many Latino countries was to have a guest speaker come in to discuss the variety of herbal and colloquial medicinal treatments people from Latin America often use. While many of these modalities are covered in the online courseware we use at SKMC to supplement the in-class portion, being able to hear real experiences from a person who grew up in the Latino community about the common practices was extremely beneficial to the students many of whom later reflected on this experience and told us that it has made them more cognizant of these cultural differences. Similarly, we were able to instruct them about the correct translation of these different remedies (hierbabuena, manzanilla, canela), which they will definitely hear if they work with the Latino population.

In teaching Medical Spanish, we also emphasized practice and engagement with the Latino population in itself. In our classroom sessions, we have coordinated activities to increase students’ utilization of Spanish terminology to increase their comfort with using new vocabulary. In an upcoming session, students will be obtaining a history of present illness from standardized patients entirely in Spanish. While our emphasis has been on the Spanish medical language, we have also consistently emphasized the role that culture plays in healthcare, and in these standardized encounters, we hope that students use the sessions on culture to address these frequent cultural practices with their SPs.

As we reach the end of our time as Medical Spanish coordinators, we hope the future coordinators can continue this wave of thought when teaching this course. Understanding our own and our patients’ roots is crucial to providing the best experiences possible in a clinical setting while further establishing rapport and trust with our patients. By sharing our experiences, we hope to inspire other schools with Spanish medical programs to approach the course with this dual aim in mind.

About the Authors:

Jose Arriola Villafuerte is an MS2 at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He was born and raised in Peru, got his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto and is now studying medicine in Philadelphia. As a medical student, he is involved in the Medical Spanish program, LMSA, Neurology Interest group and is currently performing research in stroke.

Dana Michlin is an M2 at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She was born in Jerusalem, Israel and grew up around Boston, MA. She received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Northeastern University before coming to Philadelphia to study at SKMC. She is currently involved with SKMC’s student-run clinics (JeffHOPE), Vascular Surgery Interest Group, LMSA and the Medical Spanish Program, and is excited to begin her clinical rotations in April!

About the Work:

Two medical students who are in charge of the Medical Spanish Program of their University share their thoughts on the importance of teaching Spanish to future doctors and how classes should focus on teaching both language and cultural competency in relation to the Latino Population