Proficiency in Clinical Spanish: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background and Purpose. Developing cultural competence in physical therapist students is an important hut daunting objective for physical therapist education programs. The Hispanic/Latino minority group is the most rapidly segment of the US population and numbers on the US/Mexico border place it in the majority. basic step toward elimination of cultural barriers is common language. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of learning clinical Spanish by physical therapist students. Subjects. Twenty volunteer physical therapist students began the pilot study. Eighteen completed the 12-hour course of study. Methods. Students met for 12 hours over 4 weeks to learn Hispanic culture, basic Spanish grammar, and clinical terminology. The classes were conducted by a member of the Languages and Linguistics Department of the College of Liberal Arts. Students were given a pretest during the first class and a posttest at the end of the final class. Results. paired t test showed significant (117=4.381, P Keywords: Cultural competence, Physical therapy, Spanish language, Hispanic/Latino. INTRODUCTION In the effort to academically prepare physical therapist students to practice the complexities embraced by the profession, programs may not find, or take, sufficient time to properly include all of the interpersonal aspects required to be successful with clients. Leavitt stated, Historically, few practicing rehabilitation professionals have been suitably educated on the issues associated with the delivery of cross-cultural health care.1(p37) The elements involved in becoming culturally competent in even a single culture other than one's own are myriad. When the task of understanding many cultures is contemplated, gaining some semblance of competence seems impossible. Yet, students must be helped to gain the interpersonal skills necessary to effectively interact with clients by overcoming language and cultural barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate learning clinical Spanish by physical therapist students. The hypothesis was that students in the physical therapy curriculum would significantly increase their proficiency in clinical Spanish with 12 hours of instruction. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The population of the United States has become increasingly racially and ethnically diverse over the past several decades. In 1992, persons of Hispanic/latino culture constituted 9.4% of the population2; by the year 2050, they may account for about 25% of the population.3 There are currently about 31.4 million Americans of Hispanic/Latino origin and 35% of them are under age 18.4 At present, about 32 million people in the US speak languages other than English at home and about half of these speak Spanish. By the year 2050, persons representing ethnic and racial minority groups will comprise nearly half of all Americans.3 In 1999, the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) structured a plan to increase health care access and decrease disparities in health care delivery.5 In fiscal Year 2001, HRSA adopted a new strategic direction to address health disparities. It has created a definition of a health disparity: A population-specific difference in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to care.5(p6) in conjunction with the drive to decrease disparities, HRSA has established a substrategy for increasing the cultural competence of the health care workforce. …