Project Title:
Spanish for Healthcare Professionals Initiative
Project Director and Other Associated Faculty and Staff:
Benjamin Smith, Asst. Professor of Spanish, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Contact: smithbe@mnstate.edu, Tel.: (218)477-4267
Jane Bergland, Asst. Prof. of Spanish, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Contact: berglaja@mnstate.edu, Tel.: (218)477-4967
Project Design:
The project seeks to enhance the teaching of the Spanish for Health Care Professionals (SHCP) course and to encourage interaction between Migrant Health Services, Inc. (MSHI) and students of MSUM by creating a service learning opportunity. Specifically, Spanish language students will participate in and assist with the Diabetes Clinic of MHSI and interact with the Hispanic community by organizing and staffing a day clinic. SHCP has been approved as a regular course in the Languages Department at MSUM and as an elective for Nursing students and has averaged ten students. The goal is to offer the SHCP as a hybrid online course in order to reach a greater number of students. The service learning component of the course makes it unique in the region and a model for how a Spanish course can attend to the real needs of the surrounding communities.
Project Evaluation and Outcomes:
The course was offered during the summer of 2004 and despite extensive publicizing efforts, the enrollment was surprisingly low. There was little resistance by students to the service learning requirement and the Clinic was pleased to have the students to help work with the patients. Problems that arose were (1) the need for students to be more assertive, (2) students were at various levels of proficiency in speaking Spanish so role playing was used to assist them to be comfortable in conducting medical interviews, (3) cultural differences are real and students need to sensitive to attitudes some families have towards modern medicine. Evaluations consisted of course evaluations, student interviews and journals. Evaluations revealed that students believed they improved their Spanish language skills, knowledge of Hispanic culture, and sensitivity towards medical practices in Hispanic culture.
Lessons Learned, Dissemination and Sustainability
The project manager is pleased with the success of the course and with its applicability to the community. He is troubled by the low enrollment in the course and has tried to publicize it and to offer it at different times but with little success. This may be due to its focus on health care professionals who are very busy and a limited group. The course has resulted in increased collaboration with the Academic Service Learning office at MSUM and with Migrant Health Services. Dissemination has been done with presentations at conferences for language faculty including the Foreign Language Association of the Red River Valley in December 2004 and the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in April, 2005. In future, he may submit a publication describing the project to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Annals. In addition, he was interviewed on the Fargo television station about the project.
