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Proficiency in Clinical Spanish: A Pilot Study

Background and Purpose. Developing cultural competence in physical therapist students is an important but daunting objective for physical therapist education programs. The Hispanic/Latino minority group is the most rapidly increasing segment of the US population and numbers on the US/Mexico border place it in the majority. A 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. A paired t test showed significant (t17=4.381, P<0.001) differences between the pre‐ and posttests. Discussion and Conclusion. The results showed that even students who were conversationally fluent in Spanish could improve their ability to communicate in a clinical setting. Students who had no Spanish language background were also enthusiastic about their progress, feeling that the vocabulary they learned would help them to be more efficient in the clinic. As a result of this pilot study the researchers, using federal grant funding, are developing an elective program within the curriculum to teach clinical Spanish and Hispanic/Latino culture.