How long would it take to sufficiently learn Spanish enough to interpret?

[Round786]

I live in and scribe in an area with a significant Spanish speaking population. Very very very frequently my physician will have to take the PA (the only Spanish-speaking employee) with him to translate for a Spanish-speaking patient. This is very inefficient since the PA is typically very busy reviewing charts or doing physicals, so I was considering of stepping up.

How long would it take to learn enough Spanish to reliably translate for patients? What level of Spanish would you say is enough? My university offers up to Spanish 4.

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[EthylMethylMan]

To be able to ask some basic canned questions to a patient (e.g. "do you have chest pain or shortness of breath?") only requires some rote memorization. To be a medical interpreter and to be able to reliably not miss important details of a patient's history, you really should be fluent. For most people, this would entail years of practice, probably with some degree of immersion in a Spanish-speaking country. If you have no background in Spanish, it is very doubtful that you'd get to that level of proficiency during your pre-med years. If you have some foundation from high school Spanish then maybe you could make it happen if you took a medical Spanish course and lived in a Spanish-speaking country for a while. But that would be a huge time commitment that would certainly take away from your other classes and MCAT studying. So I'd say it's a nice idea, but almost certainly not realistic.

 

[Goro]

I live in and scribe in an area with a significant Spanish speaking population. Very very very frequently my physician will have to take the PA (the only Spanish-speaking employee) with him to translate for a Spanish-speaking patient. This is very inefficient since the PA is typically very busy reviewing charts or doing physicals, so I was considering of stepping up.

How long would it take to learn enough Spanish to reliably translate for patients? What level of Spanish would you say is enough? My university offers up to Spanish 4.

Only you can answer this

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Immersion programs help. That said, many colloquial versions of Spanish exist based on nationality/region.

Check out Home and Working areas (Pre-Health Undergraduate Education Working Subgroup).

 

[Round786]

I’ve thought it through, and I’ve decided to try to learn Spanish anyway. Maybe I won’t be proficient by the time I graduate, but I can try picking up lessons or doing duolingo during med school (knock on wood). Inaccessible healthcare due to language barriers is one of the few things I am almost rabidly passionate about due to a traumatic experience when I was younger.

 

[cj_cregg]

I’ve thought it through, and I’ve decided to try to learn Spanish anyway. Maybe I won’t be proficient by the time I graduate, but I can try picking up lessons or doing duolingo during med school (knock on wood). Inaccessible healthcare due to language barriers is one of the few things I am almost rabidly passionate about due to a traumatic experience when I was younger.

Absolutely! You don't have to be fluent or a certified interpreter for it to be useful.