The Language Abilities of Resident Physicians.

purposeThe Joint Commission mandates that health care systems provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care for patients. Similarly, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that resident physicians learn to communicate effectively across cultures. The purpose of this study was to analyze residents' self-report of fluency in a second language and level of training in the use of interpreters to assess the institution's preparation of residents to meet mandates regarding the delivery of cross-cultural care.

methodsSeven hundred and twenty two (722) surveys were analyzed from resident physicians in 62 different ACGME accredited programs. Language ability was measured with a survey question asking about comfort providing patient care in a language other than English. Knowledge of working with interpreters was measured by a survey question asking about amount of training received. Survey questions on gender, post-graduate year (PGY), specialty, and underrepresented minority (URM) status were examined using c2 and independent samples Mann-Whitney U test. Logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratio by variable.

resultsFifty-five percent of all of the resident physicians endorsed feeling comfortable providing patient care in a language other than English, and Spanish was the most common language (77%). Almost 20% percent of residents reported little or no training in the use of interpreters. In bivariate analysis, race-ethnicity was associated (P-value <.001) with comfort in providing patient care in a language other than English. Primary care resident physicians had a 1.67 adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18, 2.37; p value = 0.004) of feeling comfortable providing patient care in a language other than English compared to resident physicians from other specialties.

conclusionsPrimary care resident physicians are more likely to report feeling comfortable in providing patient care in a language other than English. Most residents would benefit from additional education in working with interpreters.