ABSTRACT
In this chapter, students of Beginning Medical Spanish will acquire the necessary oral communicative skills that will allow them to elicit patient information before a first medical appointment. This chapter will be particularly useful to medical staff and nurses or nursing assistants who will develop the proper conversational skills to ask information and respond to questions about first and last names, age, birth date, civil status, weight, height, nationality, phone and health insurance. This will require the practice of incorporating information words: qué and cuál(es), in the correct context to their conversations while using the proper linguistic and cultural register to address patients appropriately.
Students will recognize that some of their patients may not observe the same holidays that are celebrated in the United States or they may celebrate other holidays. It is important for medical staff to find out what celebrations are commemorated by their Hispanic patients when scheduling office visits. Students will also develop an understanding of the impact of high uninsured rates in Hispanic communities and their practices with regards to the frequency of their visits to primary care physicians.
