Medical Spanish Interest Group improves patient experiences for Spanish-speaking community

From left, Gregory Overbeek, secretary; Matthew Yoder, treasurer; Ryan Miller, outgoing vice president; Bonnie Holley, outgoing president; Elizabeth Hernandez, president; Melody Zeidan, vice president; and Diego Alvarez, M.D., Ph.D., faculty advisor.

The Medical Spanish Interest Group (MSIG) provides an important service to the Spanish-speaking community to help improve their patient experiences and comfort level. An active student organization at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine for the past three years, MSIG consists mainly of medical students who are interested in learning, practicing, or teaching other students medical Spanish.

The group meets monthly with medical students, undergraduate students, Spanish-speaking individuals from the community, and faculty from USA. At their meetings they review a vocabulary list to provide students with helpful phrases to utilize in a patient interview. Following this, the students break up into groups based on their comfort and skill level. The Spanish-speaking individuals serve as standardized patients, and the students work through a prepared medical case in Spanish.

"This is an excellent opportunity to learn from community members," said Elizabeth Hernandez, a rising second-year medical student and incoming president of MSIG. "We not only focus on learning medical Spanish, but we have a focus on providing cultural competency so students have a better idea of how to approach patients of a different background than their own. This is important to providing compassionate and patient-centered care."

In addition to meetings, the group is involved in the community. MSIG provides volunteers to BELONG, a program designed to help immigrant families. Members assist children with their homework and whatever else they may need while their parents are in an English class. They have also volunteered with the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) by providing translation services at their health fair.

Hernandez said MSIG is always looking for ways to expand their scope of outreach, student involvement and opportunities for learning.

"We are a very young organization so there is a lot of room for growth and change based on the input of our members and the needs of our community," Hernandez said. "We look forward to a bright future of helping an increasing number of patients feel comfortable and understood in our healthcare settings. We continue to seek out additional opportunities to be involved in our community because we truly value the importance of reaching out to populations that are often vulnerable and underrepresented."

MSIG recently elected new officers: Elizabeth Hernandez, president; Melody Zeidan, vice president; Gregory Overbeek, secretary; Matthew Yoder, treasurer.

For more info or to get involved, contact Elizabeth Hernandez at edh1322@jagmail.southalabama.edu.