Friday, December 21, 2007

"Making Strides to Recruit Doctors Fluent in Spanish"

In follow up to November's post, Language gaps hinder doctor-patient relaitonships:

Recently posted on the Healthcare Careers Channel, a good discussion by MIRIAM JORDAN, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Online, tackles the real challenges of bilingual healthcare.

In Making Strides to Recruit Doctors Fluent in Spanish, she observes that Hispanics constitute 14% of the nation's 300 million people, but only 5% of U.S. practicing physicians. But there are new approaches, including international recruitment and university programs, such as one offered by UCLA, which takes advantage of the surplus of medical-school graduates in Latin America by helping them finish coursework to prepare for boards in the U.S., where a blend of medical and language skills are in chronically short supply.