Five medical students named to Foreign Languages Honor Society

Benjamin Estrada, M.D., professor and vice chair of pediatrics and assistant dean for medical education, with four of the honor society inductees, from left: Aimee Knott, Jelani Bender, Megan Rasmussen and Matthew Westerfield.

The ability for a physician to clearly communicate with a patient – and vice versa – is vital to the successful treatment of most health conditions. So when the barrier of a foreign language can be lifted, people are often able to better understand instructions, show up for needed follow-ups and feel more confident about specific plans of actions developed by their provider.

“There’s a huge need for bilingual doctors and nurses,” said Zoya Khan, Ph.D., associate professor of modern and classical languages at the University of South Alabama. “If (patients) can see that you speak their language, it’s a way of earning their trust. That’s so important.”  

Khan, who also serves as director of the Graduate Certificate in Spanish for Healthcare Professionals, welcomed five Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine Students into USA’s Foreign Languages Honor Society, Phi Sigma Iota, in late April. Recognized for their excellent performance in the Graduate Certificate in Spanish program, the students inducted into the society are Aimee Knott, Jelani Bender, Megan Rasmussen, Matthew Westerfield and Hanna Bobinger. 

Besides developing closer physician-patient relationships, mastering a foreign language will also prepare doctors-in-training for life and work in a global community.

“It allows them to better communicate with healthcare professionals across the world,” Khan said. “That includes how to understand the intricacies of healthcare delivery, the needs and problems in different parts of the world and how we are all interconnected.”

The COVID-19 global healthcare crisis is a recent example of the need to be able to communicate with those who don’t always share a common language or customs. “Pandemics do not have borders and they impact all of us,” Khan said. “The knowledge of another language can help doctors be ready to deal with new situations and new realities – including viruses and other contagions.”

In 2012, the local chapter of the honor society was established at USA with an inaugural class of 16 students from French, German, Russian and Spanish languages. Today the Chi Omega chapter of Phi Sigma Iota has 40 members who take the lead in promoting foreign languages and cultures on campus and in the Mobile area through activities including foreign languages poetry slams, a lecture series, and essay contests in foreign languages for high school students.   

“It’s not just enough to know Spanish or another language,” Khan said. “You have to know how to reach people.” She hopes involvement with the honor society will provide the needed skills for college students to do just that.