<p>Is Spanish ability important enough for a career in medicine to justify taking it as an undergraduate?</p>
<p>Do residency directors have any kind of unofficial bias for med school grads who can speak Spanish? </p>
<p>I am thinking about the fact that the Spanish-speaking patient population is huge, so I am considering taking on these extra courses in Spanish (for pass/no pass).</p>
<p>You’re not going to get the level of Spanish education in a collegiate classroom to make it of any value, so the question is kind of moot. If you were to go abroad, however, and learn the language and culture, you could definitely work that in for a small boost later on, but it won’t make the difference between getting or not getting a spot. It can be of benefit but probably not enough to justify the amount of effort unless you want to learn the language for the sake of learning it and of the intercultural experiences it opens up.</p>
<p>Spanish is a valuable asset in many regions, but unless you intend to take 4 years of it you probably won’t reach the fluency required for medical situations. I don’t think it has anything to do with unofficial bias, its pretty obvious that schools and hospitals like people who have multiple languages under their belt, but I’d take 2 points on the MCAT over Spanish fluency any day. It is a drop in the bucket that helps complete the package that you are selling.</p>
<p>1.) To justify taking it? Yes.</p>
<p>2.) Residency directors? Only if they’re in areas with a high Spanish-speaking population. And in that case it probably won’t be unofficial.</p>
<p>3.) I’d echo McD. A few extra courses here and there, especially if taken P/NP, probably won’t matter very much.</p>
<p>Spanish is highly recommended at UCLA (they don’t elaborate on courswork), but what previous posters stated still holds true:</p>
<p>[UCLA</a> SOM: Admissions Information](<a href=“http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/prospective/admissions/default.cfm?pgID=3]UCLA”>http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/prospective/admissions/default.cfm?pgID=3)</p>
<p>Stanford also recommends Spanish or an Asian language:</p>
<p>[Admissions</a> - Education - Stanford University School of Medicine](<a href=“http://med.stanford.edu/md/admissions/preparation.html]Admissions”>http://med.stanford.edu/md/admissions/preparation.html)</p>
<p>Any sort of Spanish, even really bad Spanish, is helpful in clinical settings. The degree of fluency required to conduct a medical interview is surprisingly limited if you use focused questions in place of the now advocated open-ended interview. It is also helpful to be able to say “hello” in several languages.</p>
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<p>Interesting. When I did bx therapy w/ Spanish-speaking clients it was often quite difficult to communicate symptoms with them and arrive at an understanding of treatment goals, meanings of diagnoses, etc. and I would consider myself semi-fluent (according to native speakers). While saying “hi” isn’t hard, explaining a diagnosis to someone who speaks another language wasn’t so easy. Maybe I was making it too hard (or maybe psych dx’s are simply harder to describe…), but my own feeling would be that you might be exaggerating just how attainable such a goal (i.e., conducting focused assessments in Spanish) would be with only a few years of in-class Spanish instruction. Most people at that point can barely keep a conversation going about academic and personal life types of topics (the ones for which vocab is generally taught in a classroom), much less discussions about “types of pain,” medical Hx, etc.</p>
<p>A review of systems with focused questions of the form “Ha tendido problemas con…noun phrase” can prompt useful answers. Of course, some answers come fast and furious once the floodgates open. With procedures, phrasing of the form “Voy a … infinitive phrase” makes explanations straight forward without requiring conjugation of verbs.</p>
<p>My Spanish is based on six years of French study plus whatever Spanish I picked up as a student, intern and resident in California. Not surprisingly, in Spanish I can say “I’m going to give you medicine in your IV” and “Please don’t move your head,” but I can’t say “I would like my steak medium rare.” The most useful sources of language instruction have been bilingual nurses and patients who have taken the time to correct and instruct me.</p>
<p>When needed, I use the AT&T telephone translator service for detailed discussions.</p>
<p>I’m fluent because I’m Hispanic. Will that make Spanish-knowledge seem less impressive?</p>
<p>The point of learning Spanish is not to seem impressive.</p>
<p>Having even basic spanish language skills can be extremely useful. EXTREMELY. There’s no need to be fluent. I can’t overemphasize the point. </p>
<p>By law, hospitals have to provide translator services, but often the translators are over worked, and if you can get through the basics, you can save yourself, your patients, and your colleagues a lot of time. Of course, knowing your limits is important and for things like giving diagnoses, getting informed consent and more complex things, having a translator is a definite must. </p>
<p>Every hospital/residency program is going to have spanish language patients, but whether residency programs are going to give preference to individuals who are spanish speaking is really dependent on what % of patients are spanish speaking. The more patients, the more it will matter.</p>