Medical Spanish Vital Signs Educational Module for Healthcare Students

Abstract

Background

With a growing number of Spanish-speaking patients in the United States, it is crucial for clinicians to communicate effectively with their patients. However, the number of Spanish-speaking clinicians is disproportionately low. Our module aims to provide healthcare students with a practical foundation of basic Spanish for taking vital signs. We evaluated this module's impact on student knowledge acquisition and self-perceived confidence in taking vitals in Spanish through pre- and post-module assessments.

Approach

Our 7-h hybrid educational module comprised two in-person sessions with pre- and post-session assignments. Through the module, students learned grammar, vocabulary and cultural principles before practising speaking skills through team-based learning in small groups led by bilingual facilitators.

Evaluation

Seventy-nine of the 98 originally enrolled students completed the module. Students completed pre- and post-module surveys to gauge knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, comprehension and cultural understanding in addition to measuring self-reported confidence levels using a 5-point Likert scale. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to analyse the difference between the tests with p < 0.05 representing statistical significance. Students showed statistically significant improvement in all tested domains as well as in self-confidence reporting even after controlling for prior Spanish exposure and Hispanic ethnicity. Students who had prior exposure to Spanish showed a greater increase in confidence reporting vital signs in Spanish.

Implications

With a need for more Spanish-proficient clinicians, medical education institutions in the United States will seek to augment trainee exposure to and competence in Spanish. This module provided an effective environment for healthcare students to learn and practice medical Spanish.