Abstract
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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 256 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-7 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | BMC Medical Education |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 29 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Communication skills
- Community-oriented
- Ethics/attitudes
- Medical education research
- Medicine
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education