Department of Medicine and Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs, University Of Chicago Pritzker School Of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
Biological Sciences Learning Center, Suite 104, 924 East 57th St., Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2016 Sep;3(3):484-8. doi: 10.1007/s40615-015-0165-0. Epub 2015 Oct 20.
Limited English proficient (LEP) patients are at risk of disparities in health and health care quality. These disparities can be mitigated by providing care in a language they understand. Undergraduate medical education provides an opportunity to stress that language barriers negatively impact the quality and safety of health care for LEP patients and to teach students how to overcome them. Because the preponderance of LEP patients in the USA is Spanish speaking, the majority of US medical schools have established medical Spanish coursework for interested students. However, 70 % of medical schools note significant obstacles to delivering this curriculum. The most commonly cited obstacles include a lack of time to deliver it, heterogeneous student skill levels, and insufficient faculty support. We also note that educators need to make sure not to propagate disparities and medical errors for LEP patients. We provide recommendations for establishing medical students' linguistic and cultural competence for the care Spanish-speaking limited English proficiency patients, with the caution that this instruction must be coupled with education as to when to call on an interpreter if participants are not fluent in Spanish at the end of the course.
有限英语水平（LEP）患者面临健康和医疗质量差距的风险。通过使用他们理解的语言提供护理，可以减轻这些差距。本科医学教育提供了一个机会，可以强调语言障碍会对 LEP 患者的医疗质量和安全产生负面影响，并教导学生如何克服这些障碍。由于美国 LEP 患者的绝大多数是讲西班牙语的，因此大多数美国医学院都为有兴趣的学生开设了医学西班牙语课程。然而，70%的医学院表示在提供这一课程方面存在重大障碍。最常提到的障碍包括缺乏时间来提供该课程、学生技能水平参差不齐以及教师支持不足。我们还注意到，教育工作者需要确保不为 LEP 患者传播差异和医疗错误。我们为医学生提供针对讲西班牙语的有限英语水平患者的语言和文化能力提出了建议，但需要注意的是，在课程结束时，如果参与者不精通西班牙语，则必须将这一教学与何时呼叫口译员的教育相结合。
