Medical schools with Spanish classes and/or medical missions trip to Spanish speaking countries

[YourMD]

One of my long term goals is to become fluent in Spanish. I studied Spanish grammar throughout high school and undergrad but still cannot communicate with native proficiency. Please give information on the extent of medical Spanish exposure at your school. Please give school name and elaborate on the opportunities they have to learn the language. ie duration of missions trips ect

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[DocVapor]

VCOM runs multiple week-long mission trips to Central American countries each year, as well as gives you the opportunity for a month-long rotation at one of the sites fourth year. They do offer a medical spanish course for those interested. I can't give you much more info than that as I haven't taken part in any of them, but I hear they are great.

http://www.vcom.edu/outreach/

 

[meliora27]

KCUMB had (when I was there) a Spanish elective. They also have electives through DOCARE in Guatemala.

 

[costales]

Many schools use http://cachamsi.com.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Doesn't NSU have Spanish classes as part of the mandatory curriculum?

 

[QualityProcess]

NSU has lots of opportunities to do medical mission trips to Spanish speaking countries, as well as non-Spanish speaking countries. Most students I've spoken to have lots of great things to say about it.

NSU's academic Spanish program consists of an online class with a few modules that are too easy to be taken seriously. These need to be completed, followed by a clinical skills exam done in Spanish, by the end of second year. Essentially, you have to take an HPI and do a simple physical exam, communicating entirely in Spanish. At that point in the curriculum you're well able to do a physical exam but they only grade you on the communication. Free tutoring is available every week for anyone who wants it.

edit- the LSE (language skills exam) is graded loosely, by the "patient" actor, and they speak very slowly and clearly.

 

[ReeseC]

If you're really serious about becoming clinically fluent, the best option would be the Puerto Rican medical schools. They're all LCME accredited, so you don't need to worry about being labeled an IMG. Pretty much all your patient interactions will be in Spanish, and many classes will be taught in Spanish. But don't worry too much - all exams, books, and puts are in English There are three options:

San Juan Bautista School of Medicine: This is the smallest, school. It's very community oriented and has about a 50/50 break between students from Puerto Rico and the states.

Universidad Central del Caribe: Pretty much the same as above, except the breakdown is about 90/10 PR/Stateside students. UCC and Ponce are considered about equal in terms of quality.

Ponce Health Sciences University (Formerly Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences): This is where things get interesting. The school was recently acquired by new administration, and the new administration is looking at increasing the PR/States ratio from 90/10 closer to 50/50. They're also looking at changing the first 2 years into purely English, and offering Spanish classes to those students that cannot pass a Spanish proficiency exam. These students will then have to pass a proficiency exam before moving onto rotations (which are pretty much all in Spanish). But the school is in transition, so it's hard to say how things will turn out.

The fact is that you simply are not going to be clinically fluent be taking a Spanish class in med school, or by spending a month rotating in Latin America. While you might be able to get by, you won't be able to communicate without a translator.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[YourMD]

If you're really serious about becoming clinically fluent, the best option would be the Puerto Rican medical schools. They're all LCME accredited, so you don't need to worry about being labeled an IMG. Pretty much all your patient interactions will be in Spanish, and many classes will be taught in Spanish. But don't worry too much - all exams, books, and puts are in English There are three options:

San Juan Bautista School of Medicine: This is the smallest, school. It's very community oriented and has about a 50/50 break between students from Puerto Rico and the states.

Universidad Central del Caribe: Pretty much the same as above, except the breakdown is about 90/10 PR/Stateside students. UCC and Ponce are considered about equal in terms of quality.

Ponce Health Sciences University (Formerly Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences): This is where things get interesting. The school was recently acquired by new administration, and the new administration is looking at increasing the PR/States ratio from 90/10 closer to 50/50. They're also looking at changing the first 2 years into purely English, and offering Spanish classes to those students that cannot pass a Spanish proficiency exam. These students will then have to pass a proficiency exam before moving onto rotations (which are pretty much all in Spanish). But the school is in transition, so it's hard to say how things will turn out.

The fact is that you simply are not going to be clinically fluent be taking a Spanish class in med school, or by spending a month rotating in Latin America. While you might be able to get by, you won't be able to communicate without a translator.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Thanks for the responses guys! I would love to go to a PR medical school however, as of now they all require that students be fluent in Spanish. At least that's what they claim on their websites. After some research I am contemplating spending this summer (june-august) in Guatemala. From what I hear this is the "mecca" of Spanish language schools, offering one-on-one instruction and home stay immersion for a very affordable price.

 

[ReeseC]

You don't have to be fluent, and depending on your scores, you don't even have to be proficient. You do, however, have to meet their pre-requisite requirements. It's about 12 credits of Spanish (6 for UCC) and another 12 in English. I know people that got in and their 12 units of Spanish were basic introductory classes. It's more important that you have the credits than actual fluency, or at least that seems to be the case for SJB and PSM... not sure about UCC.

 

[sonofva]

Nice pibble

 

[ChrisGriffen]

I had an attending who went to medical school in Italy who told me that he didnt know a single word of Italian and is now fluent because of how much reading he had to do.

Said he had a italian-english dictionary and a textbook on bis table and just read all day.

 

[NurWollen]

Sometimes I wish I had applied to SJB, UCC, and Ponce. Would have been fun to live in Puerto Rico, the tuition would have been much cheaper.

Not that I'm terribly interested in going their for residency, but just out of curiosity, has anyone heard of a DO matching to a Puerto Rican residency program? I've looked at the last couple of years of the NRMP results and can't find a single DO match in PR. Are there any DO's practicing there? Is there any reason a DO couldn't get licensed there?

Also, I think it would rock to have a DO school in Puerto Rico.

 

[nsu-com med student]

Created this account for anonymity. I'm a student at NSU and can tell you that South Florida has a huge Spanish speaking population.

During your clinical years you can get great exposure to Spanish speaking patients, especially if you do your core site at Palmetto General Hospital, in Hialeah. Patient population is 95% Spanish speaking, 75% Spanish speaking only. Everybody there speaks Spanish including staff & attendings.

You can certainly get by with English alone (not trying to deter any current NSU students from choosing this as your core if you don't know Spanish).

* Also NSU has a new campus in PR. Haven't really heard anything about it. Don't think it has anything to do with the COM though ... http://www.nova.edu/campuses/puertorico/index.html

 

[TankTuck]

I like your idea of submersing in a spanish speaking community at some point. No better way to learn. I know kcom has a medical spanish class and possibly a spanish club and missions if I remember correctly.

 

[UTsksk]

TCOM doesn't have spanish in its curriculum, but the Latino organization hosts spanish courses during lunch. Also plenty of students went to Guatemala for spring break and they all seemed to have enjoyed it.