Any benefit to Spanish Language Certification for residency & beyond?

[theWUbear]

Hello everyone,

I am a non-native, fluent speaker of Spanish, through high school and college courses and six months of study in a Spanish-speaking country. I have the option of taking the DELE exam - the official degree of fluency in the Spanish language. If I took it and passed it, I would put that on my CV as a certification, of course.

Would that certification be of any use when I apply to residency in three years? I want to be able to market myself properly with my ability to use Spanish in the clinic.

As correlaries to this question, I would like to ask from those of you who know better:

1. Can fluency in Spanish be a major positive in residency applications (assuming an application to a conversation-heavy specialty such as IM or EM, and application in areas where there is a population of Spanish-speaking patients)?

2. Does that translate into higher pay or better marketability as an attending?

Any relevant information about foreign languages and residency apps/being an attending would be appreciated. Thanks for your help

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[theWUbear]

Wasn't expecting to stump allo. Any attendings, residents, or people who are going through or have good knowledge of the match and could answer any questions about this, I would greatly appreciate it

 

[Bojack Horseman]

I imagine that being fluent would help you in the residency/job selection processes, but I don't think you will get compensated any more for this skill. As far as the test is concerned, you could claim you're bilingual whether you take it or not, but the test gives you proof that your skills meet some sort of minimum standards. Maybe you should contact some residency programs and ask them if they would want you to take such a test to prove that you're bilingual.

 

[Oxer45]

Hello everyone,

I am a non-native, fluent speaker of Spanish, through high school and college courses and six months of study in a Spanish-speaking country. I have the option of taking the DELE exam - the official degree of fluency in the Spanish language. If I took it and passed it, I would put that on my CV as a certification, of course.

Would that certification be of any use when I apply to residency in three years? I want to be able to market myself properly with my ability to use Spanish in the clinic.

As correlaries to this question, I would like to ask from those of you who know better:

1. Can fluency in Spanish be a major positive in residency applications (assuming an application to a conversation-heavy specialty such as IM or EM, and application in areas where there is a population of Spanish-speaking patients)?

2. Does that translate into higher pay or better marketability as an attending?

Any relevant information about foreign languages and residency apps/being an attending would be appreciated. Thanks for your help

It's a plus in certain areas where there's a lot of Spanish speaking people.

 

[LossForWords]

Speaking Spanish is great, but it's not jaw-dropping or anything on an application. It'll sure make your mornings go faster with Spanish-speaking patients since you won't have to use the translator phones.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Hello everyone,

I am a non-native, fluent speaker of Spanish, through high school and college courses and six months of study in a Spanish-speaking country. I have the option of taking the DELE exam - the official degree of fluency in the Spanish language. If I took it and passed it, I would put that on my CV as a certification, of course.

Would that certification be of any use when I apply to residency in three years? I want to be able to market myself properly with my ability to use Spanish in the clinic.

As correlaries to this question, I would like to ask from those of you who know better:

1. Can fluency in Spanish be a major positive in residency applications (assuming an application to a conversation-heavy specialty such as IM or EM, and application in areas where there is a population of Spanish-speaking patients)?

2. Does that translate into higher pay or better marketability as an attending?

Any relevant information about foreign languages and residency apps/being an attending would be appreciated. Thanks for your help

1) Minor positive in spanish speaking areas, but if you aren't qualified for the spot it isn't going to sway them. I personally would get the fluency certificate, as it may be useful in proving your ability to practice in Spanish without an official translator. I know that our student clinic requires it for certain roles, for example.

2) Not higher pay, but again it may be a plus in areas with large Spanish speaking populations. Frankly, however, those areas don't tend to be where the highest paying jobs and most competitive jobs are, and ultimately if you aren't qualified you aren't qualified.

 

[Perrotfish]

Hello everyone,

I am a non-native, fluent speaker of Spanish, through high school and college courses and six months of study in a Spanish-speaking country. I have the option of taking the DELE exam - the official degree of fluency in the Spanish language. If I took it and passed it, I would put that on my CV as a certification, of course.

Would that certification be of any use when I apply to residency in three years? I want to be able to market myself properly with my ability to use Spanish in the clinic.

As correlaries to this question, I would like to ask from those of you who know better:

1. Can fluency in Spanish be a major positive in residency applications (assuming an application to a conversation-heavy specialty such as IM or EM, and application in areas where there is a population of Spanish-speaking patients)?

2. Does that translate into higher pay or better marketability as an attending?

Any relevant information about foreign languages and residency apps/being an attending would be appreciated. Thanks for your help

FWIW I would take the test. At a bare minimum it might provide a minor amount of legal protection if/when you interact with a Spanish language patient without a translator. Some hospitals might also force you to use a translator for all spanish language patients unless you have some sort of an offical qualification, and the DELE might be sufficient at that qualification.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

JCAHO will soon require all people translating in hospital to be certified. So if you get the certification now, you will be able to translate for families, etc without the use of a third party translator. But to answer your questions:

1. Nope, not really. Every hospital has to have certified translators with cultural competencies or have a third party service in order to receive JCAHO accreditation. So, yeah, it's something you can write on your resume, but it doesn't make you all that unique or a more competitive applicant, since the hospital has to have personnel to do this anyway.

2. Nope. See above.

 

[Bancrofti]

JCAHO will soon require all people translating in hospital to be certified. So if you get the certification now, you will be able to translate for families, etc without the use of a third party translator. But to answer your questions:

May have even started already... I was told last year in my hospital that everyone needed to be certified to communicate with non English speaking patients about anything important, i.e. consent for any procedures, explanation about testing, etc.
I'd assume it wouldn't be difficult to get the certification though.

And OP, how did you attain fluency? I've been stuck on the same level of competency for a while and I'm pretty sure the only way to get my conversational Spanish any better would be to spend extended time in another country or sign up for a class dedicated specifically to that ability.

 

[theWUbear]

May have even started already... I was told last year in my hospital that everyone needed to be certified to communicate with non English speaking patients about anything important, i.e. consent for any procedures, explanation about testing, etc.
I'd assume it wouldn't be difficult to get the certification though.

And OP, how did you attain fluency? I've been stuck on the same level of competency for a while and I'm pretty sure the only way to get my conversational Spanish any better would be to spend extended time in another country or sign up for a class dedicated specifically to that ability.

Greetings from Spain 🙂

 

[theWUbear]

Thanks to everyone who's responded; I was leaning against taking the test because the "advisers" at my school didn't have anything to say except that there are plenty of Spanish-speaking med students who seem to use their Spanish in the hospital. After reading the responses here and speaking with someone in my research department, it certainly seems like a good thing to do for the future.

 

[ckdgusdl88]

If you are alrady fluent and if it's just a matter of getting certified, why not? I'm sure there are lots of hospitals in the country where there are lots of Spanish speaking patients.

I doubt it's actually worth spending a lot of time learning Spanish though. There are interpretors available at big hospitals, and most Hispanic patients speak some English. I've also never heard higher salary for Spanish speakers - many Spanish speaking patients with limited English skills probably are not profit generating patients for hospitals and clinics.

 

[montessori2md]

JCAHO will soon require all people translating in hospital to be certified. So if you get the certification now, you will be able to translate for families, etc without the use of a third party translator. But to answer your questions:

1. Nope, not really. Every hospital has to have certified translators with cultural competencies or have a third party service in order to receive JCAHO accreditation. So, yeah, it's something you can write on your resume, but it doesn't make you all that unique or a more competitive applicant, since the hospital has to have personnel to do this anyway.

2. Nope. See above.

Unless your hospital is unusually stringent, it strikes me as unlikely that providers will be required to be certified anytime soon. Interpreters, yes. Providers who are bilingual, no. And the certification may/may not be whatever your school is offering. More likely it would include some demonstration of knowledge of medical terminology in both languages, both oral and written.
I think it's a good selling point, and your team will love you for being able to communicate with patients without running for an interpreter/phone. But certifying as a medical interpreter would be better.