Improving Access for Latino Immigrants: Evaluation of Language Training Adapted to the Needs of Health Professionals

Abstract

The number of Latinos in North Carolina grew by almost 400% between 1990 and 2000. The rapid change in demographics in this state and other southeastern states has caught healthcare providers unprepared. Lack of ability to communicate with Latino patients may result in errors in diagnosis or reduced compliance with recommended treatments. The Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards, published in 2001, mandate culturally and linguistically appropriate services for persons with limited English proficiency. This paper describes an innovative strategy to promote Spanish and culture-learning skills of healthcare providers and presents results of the evaluation conducted to determine its impact on access to quality care. The evaluation used a 360 degrees case study design, at 1-year follow-up. Use of Spanish language health-related materials is key to the training's success. The authors make recommendations for replication of the integrated language and culture-training model in other new settlement areas, especially those in the southeast of the United States.

The case of Iranian immigrants in the greater Toronto area: a qualitative study

“…Although language barrier has been recognized as a primary issue for immigrants in many studies [6,7,14,15,17-21,28,29], this study interestingly showed that language barrier can be considered a two-sided issue. Some health care professionals mentioned although they knew Farsi they had difficulties to understand some words or context.…”

Medical Spanish Programs in the United States: A Critical Review of Published Studies and a Proposal of Best Practices

“…8 The Area Health Education Center workshops used a modified Berlitz method and a 360-degree evaluation of eight selected students without prior Spanish training (those with previous Spanish experience were excluded from the evaluation). 12 The pediatric programs showed improvements in patient family satisfaction, and all three suggested that their programs were effective. Two programs received scores of 2 points, the highest rating for continuing education programs.…”

“…We found only three published studies: two for pediatric physicians 7,8 and one administered by the Area Health Education Center in North Carolina. 12 Training ranged from 20 to 100+ contact hours. The pediatric programs were evaluated by patient family satisfaction surveys.…”

“…E-mail: Karol Hardin@baylor.edu lished studies have focused on an assortment of postintervention outcomes such as the number of errors, 6 patients' reports of satisfaction with medical providers, 7,8 written tests, 9 selfevaluation, [10][11][12] and a gain in number of vocabulary items. 13 However, these outcomes are inadequate surrogates for desired educational outcomes for healthcare interactions with Spanish speakers: improvement in oral, aural, and cultural proficiency.…”

Influence of Religious Coping on the Substance Use and HIV Risk Behaviors of Recent Latino Immigrants

“…Acculturative stress studies with Latino immigrants have predominantly been conducted in areas of the U.S. with high Latino immigrant populations such as Texas (Arbona, Olvera, Rodriguez, Hagan, Linares & Wiesner, 2010), Florida (Schwartz, Zamboanga & Jarvis, 2007) and California (Finch & Vega, 2003 states may be plagued with increased obstacles and struggles related to the acculturation process. This is predominantly due to the lack of available supports, unavailability of culturally or linguistically congruent services, and discrimination by receiving communities unfamiliar with the Latino population (e.g., Bender et al, 2004;Prado et al, 2008). Given the way in which the context of reception may shape the acculturation process, it is important to examine ways in which the context of reception influences the acculturative stress of recent Latino immigrants.…”