A new Spanish-language program offered in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Medicine will better equip its students to serve patients in Florida 麻豆精品 S� a state that ranks among the top four in the country for Latino populations and Spanish speakers.
UCF is the first medical school in Florida offering Spanish language certification through the national Physician Oral Language Observation 麻豆精品 S疢atrix exam.
The exam establishes the physician has demonstrated comprehension, vocabulary and pronunciation skills in Spanish to provide care to patients without an interpreter.
Three students have passed the exam already, four are awaiting results and 11 more are on the path to complete it. Two of the certified students recently found out on Match Day they are staying in Florida for their medical residency programs.
麻豆精品 S淭he exam represents a meaningful milestone because it validates that a student can provide safe, language-concordant care in clinical settings, 麻豆精品 S� says Analia Castiglioni, assistant dean and director of the Spanish language program.
Elevated Care for Florida 麻豆精品 S檚 Patients
Data shows that communications problems are the most frequent root cause of serious patient safety events such as mismanagement of medications. Patients with limited English language proficiency face higher levels of such risk.
The College of Medicine offers Spanish as its language focus to meet the state 麻豆精品 S檚 healthcare needs. Florida ranks as one of the top four states in the country for in Spanish speakers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 22% of Floridians report speaking Spanish at home.
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Not Your Average Spanish
Fourth-year medical student Rodolfo Rodriguez came to Florida from South America when he was young and spoke Spanish and English at home. While he is bilingual, he needed to learn medical Spanish to be a more effective physician.
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He wanted to specialize in rehabilitative medicine after witnessing his father recover from a motorcycle accident. Last week, he matched into the University of Miami 麻豆精品 S檚 physical medicine and rehabilitation program.
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Certification Program Details
Students are eligible to take the Medical Spanish electives in the summer before their second year of medical school, before they go into clerkships at hospitals and clinics, and/or in their fourth year.
In addition to formal Spanish language education, they practice obtaining patient histories and provide treatment plans in Spanish with standardized patients in the College of Medicine 麻豆精品 S檚 Clinical Skills and Simulation Center. Every patient encounter is taped and evaluated by Brenda Perez, who is a Certified Healthcare Interpreter鈩� in Spanish, the medical curriculum program manager at the College of Medicine and a casual Spanish interpreter at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Lake Nona.
The college hopes to expand the program to continue meeting the community 麻豆精品 S檚 needs.
麻豆精品 S淢y vision is for the program to continue growing, 麻豆精品 S� Castiglioni says. 麻豆精品 S淭hat means building strong partnerships with clinical sites that serve Spanish-speaking communities and creating opportunities for our students to rotate in those settings, where their language skills can directly enhance patient care. 麻豆精品 S�
College of Medicine students interested in learning more about the medical Spanish program may email commedspanish@ucf.edu.
