Essential Medical Mandarin for Health Care Providers

Introduction As of 2000, over 46 million people in the United States do not speak English as their primary language, and over 21 million speak English less than “very well.” This language barrier represents a serious problem for the delivery of quality health care. The Essential Medical Mandarin course was designed to address this problem. Methods This intensive 2-hour course introduces the Chinese language to physicians and other health care providers and exposes them to a number of culturally relevant topics, including demographics, health concerns, health care beliefs and practices, and alternative therapy specific to the Chinese-speaking population. The first hour is dedicated to didactic learning: teachers present the basic courtesy expressions and survival questions necessary in a medical interview. The second hour is a small-group interactive session in which students polish their Chinese pronunciation in a simulated patient-physician encounter. During the small-group session, individuals can learn additional phrases and vocabulary not covered in the first hour but pertinent to their specialties. All teaching materials and reference flash cards are provided in a packet to encourage future self-directed learning. Results To assess the class's effectiveness, we administered an end-of-course survey with three sections: overall course quality, participant experience, and participant background. From three courses offered in spring 2008, 35 surveys were collected. Respondents gave the course a score of 4.63 out of 5 for overall quality. Among individual components of the course, Medical Terminology ranked first, receiving the highest score (4.68), while Pinyin Introduction received the lowest (4.35). These high ratings suggest that participants found the course well organized and taught. All 35 students (100%) indicated that they would recommend the course to their colleagues, while 34 participants (95%) would attend another session. These results indicate that participants found the course valuable and worthwhile. Discussion Implementation of the course requires teachers fluent in Mandarin. They should also have a basic understanding of Chinese culture and beliefs regarding disease processes and medicine in general. To teach an inherently difficult language in a short amount of time, we emphasized the framework of Mandarin and the construction of a foundation from which future skills could be more easily acquired. Rather than introducing numerous vocabulary words and phrases, the curriculum familiarizes students with the four tones, provides key ways to pronounce common consonants and vowels, and emphasizes mastering the basic phrases for the clinic. After the lecture, participants were divided into small groups, each with an instructor, and given the opportunity to practice, review, and work on phrases pertinent to their areas of expertise. This strategy of distilling a vast amount of information followed by small-group sessions tailored to individual needs was very effective for reinforcing basics as well as building new and more relevant vocabulary.