Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Inadequate medical interpretation services are a barrier to the delivery of optimal health care to persons with limited English proficiency. Even though Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires that interpretation services be available to persons speaking limited English, many health care institutions are struggling to reach full compliance. Communication through untrained interpreters is likely to include mistranslations or omissions of physicians' questions, truncated or slanted patient responses, and inadequate information to facilitate accurate diagnosis and treatment. ⋯ Bilingual undergraduate and medical students become trained medical interpreters and render community service while developing cross-cultural skills. The authors review the development and implementation of the IAP. There is potential for other academic health centers to develop similar partnerships with local colleges and universities, and to provide service-learning opportunities for future physicians and health care consumers.
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To assess patients' understanding of levels of training and responsibilities for residents, medical students, and attendings in the emergency department as well as their degree of comfort in being cared for by a physician-in-training. ⋯ Patients and their families do not fully understand the roles and responsibilities of the physicians-in-training that may be caring for them despite feeling it is important to know their physicians' level of training.