Ortega Pilar, Park Yoon Soo, Rodriguez Alicia J, Girotti Jorge A
Medical Education, University of Illinois, Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, USA.
Miscellaneous, Arturo Velásquez Institute of Richard J. Daley College, Chicago, USA.
Cureus. 2019 Oct 2;11(10):e5825. doi: 10.7759/cureus.5825.
Language concordance between doctors and patients and increased matriculation of underrepresented minorities in medical school are commonly cited goals of medical centers and medical schools in addressing health disparities for individuals with limited English proficiency. Pre-medical education may represent a high-yield untapped opportunity to address both through a Spanish Health Topics, or , course for Latino pre-health students. Methods: The authors implemented a longitudinal course for pre-health, Latino, undergraduate students to prepare them for success in bilingual health careers. The course included educational components of health knowledge, Spanish terminology, Hispanic/Latino sociocultural context, and exposure to medical learning formats presented during monthly sessions spread out over two years. A post-course survey with comfort and knowledge assessments was administered after each one-year cycle of the program. Results: One hundred and sixteen students (57%) out of 203 course-participants responded to the Spanish Health Topics course survey. The student comfort level and self-perceived knowledge about specific health issues increased for both students of native-level Spanish and less advanced fluency, though a larger improvement was noted in several health topics for native speakers. Eighty-five percent of students reported perceiving the class to be useful for their future careers, and 92% of respondents indicated having applied learned concepts in social and/or academic settings outside of class.
Most students reported benefits of the course. Future studies should focus on a more detailed evaluation of enrolled students' knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and long-term retention compared to students in a standard premedical path. may enhance the bilingual, bicultural skillset of Latino underrepresented minorities in medicine, and can be replicated at other institutions.
医生与患者之间的语言一致性以及增加医学院中未被充分代表的少数族裔的入学率，是医疗中心和医学院在解决英语水平有限个体的健康差异问题时普遍提及的目标。医学预科教育可能是一个尚未充分利用的高产机会，可通过为拉丁裔医学预科学生开设西班牙语健康主题课程来同时实现这两个目标。
作者为医学预科、拉丁裔本科生开设了一门纵向课程，帮助他们为双语健康职业的成功做好准备。该课程包括健康知识、西班牙术语、西班牙裔/拉丁裔社会文化背景等教育内容，并让学生接触在两年内每月课程中呈现的医学学习形式。在该项目的每个一年周期后，进行了一项包含舒适度和知识评估的课程后调查。
203名课程参与者中有116名学生（57%）回复了西班牙语健康主题课程调查。无论是西班牙语为母语水平的学生还是流利程度稍差的学生，他们在特定健康问题上的舒适度和自我认知知识都有所提高，不过母语为西班牙语的学生在几个健康主题上的进步更为明显。85%的学生表示认为该课程对他们未来的职业有用，92%的受访者表示在课外的社交和/或学术环境中应用了所学概念。
大多数学生报告了该课程的益处。未来的研究应侧重于与标准医学预科路径的学生相比，对入学学生的知识、态度、信心和长期记忆进行更详细的评估。该课程可能会增强医学领域中未被充分代表的拉丁裔少数族裔的双语、双文化技能集，并且可以在其他机构复制。
