TY - JOUR
T1 - Interpreter training for medical students
T2 - pilot implementation and assessment in a student-run clinic
AU - Diaz, Jennifer E.L.
AU - Ekasumara, Nydia
AU - Menon, Nikhil R.
AU - Homan, Edwin
AU - Rajarajan, Prashanth
AU - Zamudio, Andrés Ramírez
AU - Kim, Annie J.
AU - Gruener, Jason
AU - Poliandro, Edward
AU - Thomas, David C.
AU - Meah, Yasmin S.
AU - Soriano, Rainier P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership, and the Department of Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for their funding and support of the course.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Author(s).
PY - 2016/9/29
Y1 - 2016/9/29
N2 - Background: Trained medical interpreters are instrumental to patient satisfaction and quality of care. They are especially important in student-run clinics, where many patients have limited English proficiency. Because student-run clinics have ties to their medical schools, they have access to bilingual students who may volunteer to interpret, but are not necessarily formally trained. Methods: To study the feasibility and efficacy of leveraging medical student volunteers to improve interpretation services, we performed a pilot study at the student-run clinic at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In each fall semester in 2012-2015, we implemented a 6-h course providing didactic and interactive training on medical Spanish interpreting techniques and language skills to bilingual students. We then assessed the impact of the course on interpreter abilities. Results: Participants' comfort levels, understanding of their roles, and understanding of terminology significantly increased after the course (p < 0.05), and these gains remained several months later (p < 0.05) and were repeated in an independent cohort. Patients and student clinicians also rated participants highly (averages above 4.5 out of 5) on these measures in real clinical encounters. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a formal interpreter training course tailored for medical students in the setting of a student-run clinic is feasible and effective. This program for training qualified student interpreters can serve as a model for other settings where medical students serve as interpreters.
AB - Background: Trained medical interpreters are instrumental to patient satisfaction and quality of care. They are especially important in student-run clinics, where many patients have limited English proficiency. Because student-run clinics have ties to their medical schools, they have access to bilingual students who may volunteer to interpret, but are not necessarily formally trained. Methods: To study the feasibility and efficacy of leveraging medical student volunteers to improve interpretation services, we performed a pilot study at the student-run clinic at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In each fall semester in 2012-2015, we implemented a 6-h course providing didactic and interactive training on medical Spanish interpreting techniques and language skills to bilingual students. We then assessed the impact of the course on interpreter abilities. Results: Participants' comfort levels, understanding of their roles, and understanding of terminology significantly increased after the course (p < 0.05), and these gains remained several months later (p < 0.05) and were repeated in an independent cohort. Patients and student clinicians also rated participants highly (averages above 4.5 out of 5) on these measures in real clinical encounters. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a formal interpreter training course tailored for medical students in the setting of a student-run clinic is feasible and effective. This program for training qualified student interpreters can serve as a model for other settings where medical students serve as interpreters.
KW - Communication skills
KW - Community-oriented
KW - Ethics/attitudes
KW - Medical education research
KW - Medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84990837119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12909-016-0760-8
DO - 10.1186/s12909-016-0760-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84990837119
VL - 16
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - BMC Medical Education
JF - BMC Medical Education
SN - 1472-6920
IS - 1
M1 - 256
ER -