Course composition
Introduction to Elective Medical Spanish is a 10-lecture online course offered multiple times per year via Zoom, consisting of one hour of weekly instruction. To date, three groups of students have completed this course in 2022-2023. The goal of the course is to create an interactive environment that simulates real-life clinical scenarios so that students can learn, practice, and consolidate their clinical knowledge in Spanish.
The course curriculum included grammar, anatomy, cultural competency, and standardized patient case videos with Spanish/English scripts (Table 1). Lecture videos serve as the main teaching material and cover common complaints and common childhood illnesses such as vaginal discharge, back pain, abdominal pain, headache, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Students were provided with a link to the lecture video before class to help them understand the content. During lectures, students play the role of both patient and doctor and watch videos synchronously. Receive live feedback on grammar, pronunciation, and alternative phrases to convey your communication goals. The video follows the standard United States Medical Licensing Examination Clinical Skills (USMLE Step 2 CS) vignette format and is available on YouTube for ease of accessibility.
student selection
This course was open not only to residents but also to any interested medical student (both preclinical and clinical years). The initiative was promoted through the St George's University School of Medicine (SGUSOM) 'Clinical Students' Facebook page. The first post about the course provided a description and a link to a Google form for prospective students (Supplemental Survey 1). 126 medical students responded to the initial invitation via a Google survey regarding their schedule availability. This information was collected in an Excel sheet to suggest tentative session times for instructors and participants (supplemental copy of IMS Reponses_Cohort1_2022). The course description clearly stated that no certification was available at the time and emphasized that participation was completely voluntary and there was no monetary or other form of compensation. . Students were also asked for demographic information, including level of medical education (preclinical and clinical years), as well as contact information. Additionally, students were asked to select their meeting preferences. Either a fixed schedule (e.g., “every Saturday”) or a flexible schedule (e.g., a variable number of days that works best for the majority of students). Students were also able to specify their preferred days and times to attend classes. Selection criteria for students included: (1) being able to participate in at least 80% of lectures, (2) being required to take a final exam, and (3) students in their clinical year (the purpose of this student population is to ). to enhance interviewing skills and patient interaction). Selected students will receive an email with their acceptance to the course, a link to the YouTube channel containing the lecture video, and a tentative meeting date and time. Cohort size was 15 (or fewer) students to allow for adequate participation to ensure success.
In addition to the announcement on the Facebook clinical page, students doing rotations at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn were also informed about the course and given the opportunity to apply via Google Forms. This medical institution and several other SGUSOM clinical affiliate sites have a widespread Spanish-speaking population, providing an appropriate environment for students to practice medical Spanish.
Level of Spanish fluency and university Spanish education were self-reported by participants and collected via a pre-course questionnaire. It was sent to all students initially enrolled in the Online Spanish in Medicine Course (OSMC) and was required to complete it before the first session (Supplemental Materials Survey 2).
comfort standards
Comfort score levels were obtained through questions during the pre-course and post-course surveys. How comfortable are you communicating a patient's medical history and main concerns in Spanish using appropriate medical terminology? (Supplemental Surveys 2 and 3) Comfort level measured on a scale of 0 to 5 It was done. 0 means not able to obtain the patient's medical history and 5 means very comfortable obtaining the patient's medical history.
Final exam evaluation
Only students who have achieved 80% attendance will be allowed to appear for the exam. Those who met the eligibility criteria for the final exam were notified and encouraged to participate voluntarily. The final exam consisted of a 20-minute patient interview conducted via Zoom, with the course instructor playing the role of the patient and the student playing the role of the doctor. A standardized checklist (Supplementary Table 2) was used to assess participants' performance. Questions were divided into subcategories and each question was given a value of 3 points for a total of 63 possible points. This value was then divided by 21 (the total number of questions). The passing score multiplier was 2x (passing equivalent score 66.7%).
