"Oh! She doesn't speak English!" Assessing resident competence in managing linguistic and cultural barriers.
Publication/Presentation Date
5-1-2006
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Residents must master complex skills to care for culturally and linguistically diverse patients.
METHODS: As part of an annual 10-station, standardized patient (SP) examination, medical residents interacted with a 50-year-old reserved, Bengali-speaking woman (SP) with a positive fecal occult blood accompanied by her bilingual brother (standardized interpreter (SI)). While the resident addressed the need for a colonoscopy, the SI did not translate word for word unless directed to, questioned medical terms, and was reluctant to tell the SP frightening information. The SP/SI, faculty observers, and the resident assessed the performance.
RESULTS: Seventy-six residents participated. Mean faculty ratings (9-point scale) were as follows: overall 6.0, communication 6.0, knowledge 6.3. Mean SP/SI ratings (3.1, range 1.9 to 3.9) correlated with faculty ratings (overall r=.719, communication r=.639, knowledge r=.457, all P
CONCLUSION: We reliably assessed residents communication skills conducting a common clinical task across a significant language barrier. This medical education innovation provides the first steps to measuring interpreter facilitated skills in residency training.
Volume
21
Issue
5
First Page
510
Last Page
513
ISSN
1525-1497
Published In/Presented At
Zabar, S., Hanley, K., Kachur, E., Stevens, D., Schwartz, M. D., Pearlman, E., Adams, J., Felix, K., Lipkin, M., Jr, & Kalet, A. (2006). "Oh! She doesn't speak English!" Assessing resident competence in managing linguistic and cultural barriers. Journal of general internal medicine, 21(5), 510–513. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00439.x
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
16704400
Department(s)
Department of Medicine
Document Type
Article
