Spanish medical jargon: A new metric for improving patient-centered communication with Spanish-speaking patients

Abstract

Objective: Reducing medical jargon improves patient-centered communication, which is a core objective of medical Spanish courses. We aimed to develop a reliable methodology for identifying and classifying Spanish medical jargon.

Methods: Fourth-year medical students in a medical Spanish course recorded themselves explaining diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care during ten clinical scenarios. We developed a stepwise process for identifying and classifying Spanish medical jargon in the recording transcripts. Two reviewers scored jargon, unexplained jargon, and non-Spanish (neologisms/English) word counts. We evaluated jargon metric correlations with other course performance data.

Results: We identified 439 Spanish jargon words and 134 non-Spanish words across 480 transcripts. Mean Spanish jargon per minute was 6.57, and 30% was classified as unexplained. Overall inter-rater reliability was excellent (interclass correlation=0.88). Students with post-course Spanish proficiency of "very good" or higher had less unexplained jargon in follow-up care transcripts (P < 0.05); other course outcomes did not correlate with jargon findings.

Conclusion: A Spanish medical jargon metric can be reliably used to evaluate student communication skills in a medical Spanish course. Next steps include engaging patient perspectives and exploring strategies to automate jargon analysis.

Practice implications: Spanish medical jargon adds a previously unexplored dimension to the assessment of Spanish-language patient-centered communication.

Keywords: Communication skills; Hispanic/Latino healthcare; Language-appropriate healthcare; Language-concordant healthcare; Limited English proficiency; Medical Spanish; Medical jargon; Patient-centered communication.