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The Hispanic population has increased exponentially in the last 10 years and is expected to continue to grow throughout all regions of the United States. In medicine, there are many social and language barriers that must be understood and overcome for current and future physicians to effectively communicate and treat this patient population. Numerous authors have noted a decrease in compliance among Spanish-speaking patients when care was provided by non-Spanish-speaking physicians as well as decreased satisfaction with their care despite use of well-trained Spanish interpreters.1"3
With this in mind, we sought to develop an instructional format that could be used on the third-year surgery rotation for teaching medical Spanish. The purpose of our study was to investigate the feasibility and impact of introducing an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination)-based model for teaching medical Spanish on the Surgery Clerkship.
From July 1, 2009, until July 1, 2010, all 76 students rotating on the Surgery Clerkship were offered instruction in medical Spanish on a purely voluntary basis. An OSCE format was used to assess and teach the basic history and work-up of a patient with abdominal pain, a common chief complaint of patients encountered on the surgery rotation. Two patient instructors were used both bilingual surgeons. The OSCE grading scale used was a modification of that used for testing our students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine at the end of Year 2 and Year 3 of medical school. A point system was used with a maximum score of 25. After the initial encounter, a 9-minute session was given to the participants during which a review was performed of the case stressing the basic medical Spanish used in the work-up of a patient with abdominal pain. A posttest was performed at the end of the 6-week rotation.
Students were divided into three groups based on prior Spanish fluency: 1) Group 1: those with minimal knowledge of Spanish; 2) Group 2: those with 2 or more years of college Spanish or the equivalent though not considered fluent; and 3) Group...