MEL 8149: International Medical Spanish and Cultural Immersion 15-16

Drs. Carlos Callegari and Eduardo Gonzalez

This elective is designed to provide USF Medical Students an opportunity to participate in an established international Medical Spanish program. Participation in these programs will allow students to learn and/or improve conversational Medical Spanish and to experience the culture of a Spanish speaking country. It is expected that this experience will allow students to appropriately interact in a clinical setting with Spanish speaking patients abroad and in the USA. It is expected that this experience will increase the student’s functional language skills in real cultural, clinical and medical environments. Depending on the program, students will normally have scheduled class hours to learn basic and intermediate Spanish skills as well as time to interact with the local community. During the 4 week elective, students will be exposed to various clinical scenarios and have an opportunity to experience local customs as well as visit local settings. Students wishing to participate will be required to fund their tuition, transportation, meals and other necessary items.

Interested students should sign up no later than 6 months prior to the course. Students should also plan to schedule a meeting with Drs. Callegari or Gonzalez to review the requirements no later than 6 months prior to the course.

Objectives

1. Students will be able to establish communication in Spanish to the degree of:
   1. Understanding a patient’s needs for seeking health care and obtaining their reason for the encounter (chief compliant)
   2. Conducting basic medical interviews and being able to characterize the signs and symptoms of the patient
   3. Being able to communicate requests when performing a general physical examination 
2. Students will understand the differences between various clinical settings in the country visited and compare them with the USA facilities and health system.
3. Students will compare medical problems and health needs from local population with the Hispanic and non Hispanic USA population.
4. Students will understand and be sensitive to local, family, and cultural values and be able to compare them to the USA Hispanic and non-Hispanic population.

Evaluation

The learner’s evaluation will be based on:

• Performance obtaining a clinical medical history in Spanish which may be conducted in an OSCE format before and after the experience.
• A written report on the learner’s experience
• Informal presentation to the directors on their experience as it relates to the cultural and medical Spanish aspects of the course