What is Medical Spanish?
Medical Spanish is a tool for health care providers to communicate with their Spanish speaking patients in a manner that ensures high quality, safely managed and accurately facilitated care.
Medical Spanish is a skill of clinically competent and culturally adaptable Spanish linguistics. One can have fluency in Spanish, but not in Medical Spanish. The Cachamsi program offers immersion and certification in the practice of Medical Spanish through proprietary courses and Kaiser Permanente’s Clinician Cultural and Linguistic Assessment (CCLA).
At Cachamsi, Medical Spanish is taught by linguistics experts in Medical Spanish, designed for novice to native speakers, geared towards improving Spanish-speaking patient care and satisfaction globally.
Why Medical Spanish?
Over 13% of the United States population are native Spanish speakers. This number increases to 30% in Texas and California.
Spanish speaking patients experience less access, lower standards of care, and report less care satisfaction than English speaking patients. According to the United States CDC, policymakers must seek effective approaches for increasing the number of Spanish speaking healthcare providers.
Don’t you Agree?
With over 1 in 10 (and up to 3 in 10) of our patients preferring Spanish language care, these patients deserve the same quality of and access to care as your English speaking patients.
““Any learning or practicing medical professional who seeks to provide equitable care to their Spanish-speaking patients should seek to participate in one or more Cachamsi Medical Spanish programs throughout their career to form, build upon, or master a clinically-functional foundation of Medical Spanish in their pursuit of reducing the vast clinically-founded health disparities experienced by Spanish speaking patients in the United States.”
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medical spanish at cachamsi
Medical Spanish Classes
The medical Spanish curriculum will cover a wide range of topics from anatomical vocabulary to medical terminology and procedures to doctor-patient relationship and cultural appropriateness. The student will systematically study compounding grammar structures, thus providing a strong linguistic base of knowledge as he / she progresses through the program. In addition, the curriculum will offer the student the opportunity to learn about traditional indigenous and complementary/alternative forms of medicine, comparative international health, and Ecuadorian health care.
Upon arrival in Riobamba, Ecuador the student will complete a Medical Spanish proficiency evaluation. We welcome all levels of Spanish proficiency. The results of this evaluation will be used to provide a personalized learning experience to the participant. Our instructional objective is to tailor-fit the program to the student in order to maximize his/her clinical Spanish improvements during their stay with Cachamsi. Our Instructors are graduates of major Ecuadorian universities and/or selected private language schools in Ecuador. They are teaching professionals and linguistic experts in Medical Spanish.
Class Size
Class size is dependent on the number of participants enrolled in the program each month. During the summer months of June, July, August, class size ranges from 5-10 students per instructor. During the rest of the year, each instructor has about 1-4 students. The program has a maximum enrollment of 35 students each month. Students will spend approximately 2.5 hours in Spanish classes each weekday. There are no classes on weekends to allow time for travel and personal immersion.
Cachamsi-ALTA Medical Spanish Certification
Cachamsi and ALTA Language Testing have partnered to provide an exclusive Medical Spanish certification path for our Intermediate, Advanced, and Native Spanish-Speaking Students. This is an evidence-based medical Spanish exam for healthcare providers, which has been developed by the Kaiser Permanente Health System in California.
This exam may only be taken by current/past Cachamsi Students who are seeking legitimate certification in Medical Spanish as a professional development opportunity.