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Web site translates health care
Medical workers can tap into Va. online source so they can better serve Hispanic patients
BY TAMMIE SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, May 12, 2006


ONLINE
www.vdh.virginia.gov/ ohpp/clasact.asp

"Vas a sentir una punzada de jeringa."

Translation: You are going to feel a needle stick.

"Necesito una muestra de sangre."

Translation: I need to draw a blood specimen.

A new Virginia Department of Health Web site provides translations such as these to help health-care workers take care of patients who speak only Spanish.

The Web site also offers links to resources to help health-care workers understand cultural differences that may affect delivery of health-care services to immigrants.

"Virginia is ranked among . . . the top 10 states in terms of refugee resettlements in the nation and has a growing immigrant population," said Rene Cabral-Daniels, director of the state Health Department's Office of Health Policy and Planning, which created the Web site.

Health-care workers want to provide culturally competent care, but language differences are a barrier for many, Cabral-Daniels said.

According to U.S. Census figures, Virginia's population of 7.39 million people includes 395,000 Hispanics, or 5.3 percent of the total state population. That is up from 4.7 percent in the 2000 census.

Another measure of the growing Hispanic presence is in the numbers of births to Hispanic women. According to a recent federal report on births that provided breakdowns by state, there were 10,401 births to Hispanic women in Virginia in 2003, up from 7,725 in 2000 and up from 3,459 in 1990. That was a 123 percent change from 1990 to 2000. Non-Hispanic births in the state in 2003 totaled 91,007, according to the federal report.

Growth in the Hispanic population in metropolitan Richmond has prompted local providers such as CrossOver Ministry, which operates a network of free clinics, to actively recruit staff fluent in Spanish and to encourage workers to learn the language.

Sheila Pour, a physician assistant at CrossOver, took community-college courses in 2001 to learn to speak Spanish. Working at CrossOver, which has a growing number of Hispanic patients, also provided immersion in the language, Pour said.

"As I increased my Spanish proficiency, I had more opportunity to see patients without translators," Pour said. "By the end of my first semester studying I was able to start seeing patients by myself." Her comfort level increased as patients' referred their neighbors and relatives to her because she spoke Spanish.

Cabral-Daniels said the translations on the Web site are done by the Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center. Because of variations and regional differences in how words and phrases are used in any language, the translations may not be exactly how all Spanish-speakers would say them.

For instance, a Times-Dispatch reporter who is a native of El Salvador said he would translate "You are going to feel a needle stick" as "Va a sentir una punzada de aguja."

It would be rude or insulting, he said, to address an adult with "Vas."

And to tell a patient "I need to draw a blood specimen," he would say, "Necesito sacar una muestra de sangre."

Pour said she would tell a client he was about to get a shot by saying in Spanish "You are going to feel a little sharp pain."

"I see patients from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia. I see people who are illiterate. I see people whose second language is a Spanish dialect. I see people who have advanced degrees," Pour said. "There are some words considered common and everyday words in Latin America, and in other places they are considered rude or slang."

State officials say the Web site will eventually add audio so people can hear how words are pronounced. Over time, translations in up to two dozen languages may be added.


Contact staff writer Tammie Smith at TLsmith@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6572.