Research
Integrating Gender-Affirming Care in a Medical Spanish Endocrine System Curriculum
Introduction: With a growing Hispanic population in the United States, medical education is adapting to provide the necessary language skills and cultural competence for effective health care. However, the incorporation of gender-affirming care in the context of medical education for Hispanic populations requires further emphasis. Methods: This curriculum presented a 3-week medical Spanish endocrine system module designed for first-year medical students. The module aimed to enhance students’ ability to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking patients about endocrine health while integrating principles of gender-affirming care. It included classroom sessions, standardized patient practice, and clinical practice with peer tutors. Pre- and postmodule surveys and assessments were conducted to evaluate the module's effectiveness. Results: Out of 76 participants, 72 completed the postmodule evaluation. Survey results indicated significant increases in confidence levels across various aspects of patient interaction in Spanish, with statistically significant gains observed in all assessed areas. Knowledge test outcomes revealed enhanced proficiency in Spanish terminology related to the endocrine system, with scores increasing from an average of 22.3 premodule to 25.7 postmodule (p = .002), as measured by the paired t test. Additionally, students performed well in the diabetic consultation objective structured clinical examination station, with a high mean score of 86%, surpassing the satisfactory threshold. Discussion: This curriculum highlights the success of a comprehensive educational approach in expanding medical students’ language proficiency and ability to provide gender-affirming care to address health care disparities and improve patient outcomes among diverse populations.
Enhancing Clinical Spanish Proficiency through Standardized Patient Interactions: A Case Study of Medical Students' Performance
Introduction: With the anticipated growth of the Hispanic population in the United States to 30% by 2050, there is an urgent demand for Spanish-speaking healthcare professionals. The California University of Science and Medicine School of Medicine has addressed this need by introducing a medical Spanish curriculum that includes Spanish-speaking Standardized Patients. This innovative educational approach is designed to improve students' communication skills and enhance their ability to take medical histories, preparing them for effective clinical interactions as evaluated through the Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Methods: This study assesses the impact of the medical Spanish curriculum, with a focus on the role of Standardized Patients in role-playing scenarios that simulate real clinical experiences. A regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between students’ attendance in medical Spanish classes and their performance in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, highlighting the value of experiential learning in developing clinical skills. Results: The findings indicate a significant positive relationship between consistent participation in medical Spanish courses, which feature Standardized Patient interactions, and higher scores in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination. This relationship emphasizes the importance of regular engagement in these interactive educational settings to improve clinical assessment capabilities. Conclusions: The inclusion of Standardized Patients in the medical Spanish curriculum plays a critical role in enhancing students’ clinical performance, validating the importance of experiential learning in medical education. This approach confirms the effectiveness of practical, interaction-based language instruction in producing competent, culturally adept healthcare providers ready to serve an increasingly diverse patient demographic.
Enhancing Medical Spanish Education and Proficiency to Bridge Healthcare Disparities: A Comprehensive Assessment and Call to Action
This article highlights the critical importance of linguistic and cultural concordance in health care, particularly in addressing the shortage of proficient Spanish-speaking healthcare providers in California. It advocates for standardized curricula, qualified instructors, and mandatory medical Spanish courses while stressing the significance of interdisciplinary training that integrates language skills with clinical experience and acknowledges the interplay between language and culture in health care. The article calls for proactive efforts from medical schools, faculty, and healthcare providers, emphasizing standardized curricula, culturally sensitive training, and reliable assessment tools. Additionally, it underscores the need to enhance the representation of underrepresented minority healthcare providers to ensure equitable health care for linguistic minorities, emphasizing the shared responsibility of healthcare and education stakeholders.
A comprehensive medical Spanish curriculum model: the Vida Medical Spanish Curriculum
Introduction: Racial and language disparities in the United States healthcare system have long undermined the quality of care provided to minority patients. With the projected growth of the Hispanic population, there is an urgent need for medical schools to integrate high-quality medical Spanish and cultural competency content. We propose a comprehensive medical Spanish curriculum aligned with the preclinical curriculum as a solution to these issues. The primary goal of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a clinically focused, culturally competent medical Spanish program and advocate for its widespread adoption in medical institutions nationwide. Methods: The study utilized the Kirkpatrick Model to evaluate the success of the medical Spanish curriculum. A total of 111 medical students voluntarily enrolled in the medical Spanish course. Out of these students, 47 completed the final evaluation, which included a Spanish Objective Structured Clinical Examination and a 40-question Multiple- Choice Exam assessing the integration of Spanish language skills and cultural competency. Both assessment methods took place in clinical skills facilities. Descriptive statistics summarized exam results, and two-tailed t-tests compared mean exam scores between students of different proficiency levels. Results and discussion: Students achieved a mean score of over 80% on all components of the Spanish Objective Structured Clinical Examination and the Multiple-Choice Exam. Survey data suggest that students felt able to communicate in Spanish with patients after completing the course series. The study also provides a model for a medical Spanish curriculum that applies expert-recommended best practices to meet the needs of Hispanic patient populations. Limitations and conclusions: Students who sat for the OSCE and MCE were self-selected. Baseline data on student perceptions and Spanish competency are not sufficient for making comparisons.
A Case Study of the Impact of Language Concordance on Patient Care, Satisfaction, and Comfort with Sharing Sensitive Information During Medical Care
Linguistic barriers continue to be a source of difficulty and inappropriate treatment in our healthcare system. Several studies have shown the importance of language concordance, which leads to increased trust and higher patient satisfaction. The aim of this is study is to determine patients’ satisfaction and comfort levels with sharing sensitive information in Spanish with either the health care provider or an interpreter, respectively, and to compare the results to find out if there is an option that patients prefer. There were two different groups of participants in the study. The experimental group was directly seen by Spanish-speaking student doctors while the control group was seen by English-speaking student doctors that had the aid of an interpreter. Several questions were asked to participants via survey in order to measure their comfort levels during the encounter. The results of this study demonstrate that having Spanish-speaking healthcare providers providing health care to Hispanic patients can raise patients’ comfort levels and satisfaction in contrast to having the aid of an interpreter. Providing second language training to student doctors can potentially improve patient care and reduce health inequities facing LEP patients. Given the small sample size of our study, future projects should expand the study to include more participants.
A Proposal to Teach Medical Students How to Use Interpreters
Medical interpreters are crucial to ensure fair and high-quality healthcare for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Despite the need to use high-quality medical interpreters to communicate with LEP patients, medical schools often do not adequately educate their students on how to work with interpreters. This study seeks to investigate the efficacy of using peer-assisted learning to teach medical students how to properly use medical interpreters. Moreover, the study strives to elucidate if an interactive peer-led model can be an effective teaching modality to train medical students about the basics of using medical interpreters. A pre- and post-training design was utilized to investigate the efficacy of peer-assisted learning in teaching medical students how to use interpreters. Second year medical students led a two-part workshop consisting of the following: (1) a didactic training session and (2) a practical session where learners interacted with Spanish-speaking standardized patients through an interpreter. Pre-training and post-training responses to survey questions were analyzed to determine changes in student comfort, confidence, and knowledge of best practices when using a medical interpreter. There was a statistically significant increase in comfort and confidence with using interpreters after receiving peer-assisted training. A peer-led didactic training followed by an interactive training session can increase student comfort and confidence with using medical interpreters in clinical settings. Peer-assisted-learning may be an effective way to teach some of the best practices of using medical interpreters.
La Instrucción Implícita de Gramática a través del Enfoque por Tareas en Línea: Una Propuesta Didáctica en la Clase del Español como Segunda Lengua para enseñar los Objetos Directos e Indirectos
Task-supported videoconferencing instruction emphasizes learner centeredness and experiential learning in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Still, relatively few studies have addressed the use of specific linguistic structures in online courses from a task-based perspective. The present study examines the effects of an online task-supported module on the acquisition of direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish. These pronouns are used very frequently by proficient Spanish speakers, but are less used by Spanish learners because of their morphological and syntactic complexity. The results of this study demonstrate the benefits of using an online task-supported module specially designed to promote the use of direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish through videocon-ference. Participants used the target structures on many occasions without being prompted to do so. The results suggest that the task-supported module is a promising approach to the teaching of grammar
Implicit instruction of direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish through Technology-Mediated Task-Based Language Teaching
The importance of integrating computers and other technological tools in education is unquestionable nowadays. Task-Based Language Teaching has proven to be particularly effective to help learners develop their knowledge of the target language as they participate easily and naturally in communicative tasks through online interaction. The use of direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish entails many difficulties for second language learners. The reason can be attributed to the fact that object clitics in Spanish normally create a structure that appears to be (Subject) Object Verb, ((S)OV) or OVS.
My Ph.D. dissertation, co-directed by Dr. Dorothy Chun and Dr. Miglio, explores the impact that an online Task-Based Language Teaching unit has on the acquisition of direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish. The results are drawn from participant-observation and statistical techniques. Participants in the experimental group used the target structures on many occasions, and their results exceeded those of the control group—the mean of the experimental group was 7.50, whereas the mean of the control group was 1.23.
The vowel nasalization found in Murcia, Spain: A case study of this phenomenon
Another strand of my work is focused on the phonology of the dialect found in my hometown: Murcia (Spain).
Of all the linguistic features that characterize the southern dialect spoken in Spain, the vowel nasalization found in Murcia is the most distinctive one. Vowel nasalization in Spanish mostly affects vowels between two nasals and in utterance-initial position following nasals. The nasalized vowels found in this region, however, are not in either of those contexts. As an example, the word especial [epeθjal] > [epeθjã] presents a nasalized final vowel in an unexpected context. There are authors believing that nasalization becomes an acoustic marker of a word limit. The goal of this study is to determine the contexts where nasalization occurs based on the analysis of recordings made by speakers of this dialect. A number of factors were targeted as potential predictors of nasalization, including internal factors such as words with stressed first or final syllable and composed by random consonant phonemes which obey the Sonority Principle: vowel (or diphthong) + /l/, /r/, /d/, /s/ and /ʃ/, and external factors such as gender, age, social class and level of education. Results indicate that women nasalize less than men, age does not have an impact, and the lower the social class or the education is, the higher index of nasalization is found.
Translating the violent content of Grimm brothers’ fairy tales: An Eye-Tracker Experiment
In my first years as a Ph.D. student, I was interested in translation (I now focus more on applied linguistics). With other peers (UC Santa Barbara), I coauthored this published article.
Eye-tracking has been introduced as a tool to analyze the cognitive processes of translators in recent years. Current research with eye-tracker focuses on examining translation processes. As far as we know, however, this tool has not been used for detecting eye movement behaviors related to the cognitive processing of violent content in the source text (ST). As research in this area is emerging, this study aims to determine if semantic associations with violent actions or activities in the ST produce a response in the gaze behavior of the translator. This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the cognitive processes involved in the translation of three condensed versions of Grimm brothers’ fairy tales. The selected texts present the range of violent content for which these tales are renowned, from more modern adaptations which remove the violent content to very explicit and graphically violent stories. Texts were translated from Spanish (L2) into English (L1). Fixation counts and fixation duration were calculated for each participant in ten Areas of Interest (AOI) which represented challenges in translating various aspects of grammar and violence presented in these tales.