Bringing the gap between rural Hispanics and health care services: Individual and community impacts of a community-based medical interpreters training program

Rural Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. face numerous barriers to accessing good quality healthcare. These barriers include travel time and distance from place of residence to healthcare centers, underinsurance, and language barriers that significantly limit communication in the patient-provider encounter. Using a Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) approach, the Center of Excellence in Rural Health Project EXPORT at the University of Illinois College of Medicine –Rockford identified language as the most significant barrier to accessing healthcare among 941 Hispanics living in five rural counties. Local Hispanic Health Advisory Committees (HHACs) in these counties partnered with research staff to offer a medical interpretation training program to address the language barrier concern. Twenty four bilingual community members participated in a basic 40-hour nationally recognized healthcare interpreter training opportunity. Results from the initial and a 6-month follow-up evaluation of this training indicate high levels of participant satisfaction with various aspects of the training and their successful placement in local community clinics and organizations. Increased improvements in participant's' employment status and opportunities for professional development are also noted. From an organizational standpoint, this community-based training program has also been beneficial for local healthcare providers who report significant increases in the number of rural Hispanic patients being served and improvements in their ability to provide culturally-appropriate services to their patients. The finding of a critical need for community capacity building (i.e. medical interpretation training) resulted from the participatory approach emphasized in the CBPAR model used in this effort