Deborah Bender, PhD MPH¹, Claudia S. Plaisted Fernandez, MS, RD, DrPH(c)², Christina Harlan³, Robert Henshaw⁴, Claire Lorch, MSW⁵, Chris M. McQuiston, PhD⁶, Elizabeth Tolman¹, and Amy Trester, MEd⁴. (1) Health Policy and Administration, The University of North Carolina, C.B. 7411, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919 966-7383, deborah_bender@unc.edu, (2) North Carolina Institute for Public Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, (3) Dept of Public Health Leadership, University of North Carolina, C.B. #7400, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400, (4) NC Institute for Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, Campus Box 8165, UNC School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, (5) Public Health Leadership, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3343, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3343, (6) School of Nursing, UNC at Chapel Hill, C.B. # 7460, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

This paper describes °A su salud! and presents evaluation results. °A su salud! is an intermediate health Spanish curriculum. The authors describe the integration of health and culture learning with Spanish language instruction.

The rapid increase in Latino immigrants, particularly in new immigrant states like North Carolina, has health care professionals unprepared. The scarcity of providers able to communicate effectively in Spanish has jeopardized communication between provider and patient and compromised quality of healthcare.

To address the quality gap, an interdisciplinary team of language, health care and technology experts at the University of North Carolina developed a Health Spanish language curriculum. The °A su salud! centerpiece is a health-drama, set in a community health clinic, with additional scenes in locations such as an emergency department, a night-club, a client’s home, and a local health fair. Vocabulary and grammar relevant to each setting are presented. The health drama is recorded on DVD; additional exercises, including cases recounting interactions between health professionals and Latino patients, are available in web and traditional workbook formats.

The evaluation presents results of pre and posttests of spoken and written language skill in two classes of health affairs learners, assessment of ease of use of technology and questions designed to assess relevance to workplace settings. Preliminary results indicate that learners improve not only their Spanish language knowledge, but also their ability to use the language effectively. The authors recommend that °A su salud! be made available nationwide to professionals in hospitals, health departments, other health settings and university training programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the interdisciplinary development of the intermediate Health Spanish Course.
• Present the evaluation findings from two groups of health affairs students enrolled in the course.
• Make recommendations for ways to integrate the Health Spanish course into schools of public health, medicine, nursing, dentistry and allied health sciences.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.