ArticleBMC medical education2018
Implementing a medical student interpreter training program as a strategy to developing humanism.
Article in BMC medical education, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical competency: a gap in language access training for underserved populations.Medical education online · 2026Article
- Communication Barriers in Patient-Provider Interactions in Health Care: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Interpreting in healthcare: a systematic search and mapping of ethical issues in health literature.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Researcher Perceptions of Inclusion of Study Participants Who Use Languages Other Than English.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- One Health clinic challenges and evolution: increasing access to care for people and pets in a rural community in Northern California.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Review
- Patient-centered lean healthcare management from a humanistic perspective.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Motivations of undergraduate student medical interpreters: Exposure and experience.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Overcoming the language barrier: a novel curriculum for training medical students as volunteer medical interpreters.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- A systematic scoping review of approaches to teaching and assessing empathy in medicine.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Voluntary assignments during the pediatric clerkship to enhance the clinical experiences of medical students in the United StatesJournal of educational evaluation for health professions · 2020Article
- A Novel Simulation to Assess Residents' Utilization of a Medical Interpreter.MedEdPORTAL : the journal of teaching and learning resources · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHumanistic care in medicine has shown to improve healthcare outcomes. Language barriers are a significant obstacle to humanistic care, and trained medical interpreters have demonstrated to effectively bridge the gap for the vulnerable limited English proficiency (LEP) patient population. One way in which medical schools can train more humanistic physicians and provide language access is through the implementation of programs to train bilingual medical students as medical interpreters. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate whether such training had an impact on bilingual medical student's interpretation skills and humanistic traits.
methodsBetween 2015 and 2017, whole-day (~ 8 h) workshops on medical interpretation were offered periodically to 80 bilingual medical students at the Penn State College of Medicine. Students completed a series of questionnaires before and after the training that assessed the program's effectiveness and its overall impact on interpretation skills and humanistic traits. Students also had the opportunity to become certified medical interpreters.
resultsThe 80 student participants were first- to third- year medical students representing 21 languages. Following training, most students felt more confident interpreting (98%) and more empathetic towards LEP patients (87.5%). Students' scores in the multiple-choice questions about medical interpretation/role of the interpreter were also significantly improved (Chi-Square test, p < 0.05). All students who decided to take the exam were able to successfully become certified interpreters. Ninety-two percent of participants reported they would recommend the program and would be willing to serve as a future "coaches" for interpreter training workshops delivered to peer students.
conclusionsOur program was successful in increasing self-reported measures of empathy and humanism in medical students. Our data suggests that implementation of medical interpreter training programs can be a successful strategy to develop of humanism in medical students, and aid in the development of sustainable language access for LEP patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.