Spanish for Health Care Professionals

Rating:
Summary: For talking to Spanish speaking patients
Review: A blurb on the front of William Harvey's _Spanish for Health Care Professionals_ notes that this book is designed for communicating with people whose only language is Spanish. This book is also designed for people who have little or no skills in Spanish to learn something of that language.

The first chapter, which is entitled "Basic Information," introduces the reader to the Spanish alphabet, so that the reader may learn how to pronounce Spanish words, and to some basic expressions such as "Good morning" and "How are you?"

In subsequent chapters the reader learns the names for the parts of the body, some terms/phrases for admission into a hospital, some terms/phrases for an accident scene, and some terms/phrases for a pregnancy. These chapters are followed by three more which teach terms/phrases according to three hypothetical patients of varied ages. At the end of the book is what the writer called a word/expression finder,an English/Spanish and a Spanish/English dictionary.

However the reader should be aware that the terminology discussed is limited in its depth. A quick comparison of this book with _First Responder_ by David Schottke and others shows that terms such as "abdomen" and "anaphylactic shock" are not covered by William Harvey's book. Even so, as the front cover blurb said, this book should be very useful to people who have little or no skills in Spanish when speaking to Spanish speaking patients.

Rating:
Summary: For the student in you
Review: I am a medical resident and recently bought William Harvey's "Spanish for Health Care Professionals". A wonderful way to learn phrases and basic Spanish skills to communicate with a Spanish-speaking patient. I would recommend this tutorial for anyone willing to put in the time to begin learning another language. It will help you be a better health care provider for a sometimes-underserved patient population.

Rating:
Summary: Just okay
Review: I am a medical resident and recently bought William Harvey's "Spanish for Health Care Professionals". A wonderful way to learn phrases and basic Spanish skills to communicate with a Spanish-speaking patient. I would recommend this tutorial for anyone willing to put in the time to begin learning another language. It will help you be a better health care provider for a sometimes-underserved patient population.

Rating:
Summary: For the student in you
Review: I am a medical resident and recently bought William Harvey's "Spanish for Health Care Professionals". A wonderful way to learn phrases and basic Spanish skills to communicate with a Spanish-speaking patient. I would recommend this tutorial for anyone willing to put in the time to begin learning another language. It will help you be a better health care provider for a sometimes-underserved patient population.

Rating:
Summary: Just okay
Review: Reviewed by one of the professional Spanish-language interpreters at a major medical facility. Not organized very well; too confusing. There are better products, so this one is not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Medical Social Worker says, "Thank you!"
Review: This book is extremely practical for my interactions with spanish-speaking patients. I work at a hospital and we see a large number of Hispanic/Mexican-American individuals. This book has been IMMEDIATELY applicable and helps me to be more effective. Patients appreciate my obvious effort even though my pronunciation and grammer isn't perfect! Thank you to William Harvey for writing a book applicable to ALL types of healthcare professionals, including social workers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Self-Learning Resource for Health Care Providers
Review: This book is not intended to be a quick reference guide - it's meant to be an instructional tool, and is a very good one. If you're a motivated learner and you have some time to devote to studying Spanish, this is a great way to start. I started off a few years ago using William Harvey's First Edition of this book, which was really helpful, but this updated version is even better. It addresses several different types of diagnoses, treatments, and procedures, and uses gender/age-specific scenarios to teach vocabulary and new tearms. Beside each new Spanish word, you get the phonetic pronunciation in English, which is very helpful to keep you from botching the pronunciation of Spanish words. The author goes the extra mile in giving you little "Notas" about Hispanic culture and how it impacts health care. This book has been incredibly helpful to me as a health care provider. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Self-Learning Resource for Health Care Providers
Review: This book is not intended to be a quick reference guide - it's meant to be an instructional tool, and is a very good one. If you're a motivated learner and you have some time to devote to studying Spanish, this is a great way to start. I started off a few years ago using William Harvey's First Edition of this book, which was really helpful, but this updated version is even better. It addresses several different types of diagnoses, treatments, and procedures, and uses gender/age-specific scenarios to teach vocabulary and new tearms. Beside each new Spanish word, you get the phonetic pronunciation in English, which is very helpful to keep you from botching the pronunciation of Spanish words. The author goes the extra mile in giving you little "Notas" about Hispanic culture and how it impacts health care. This book has been incredibly helpful to me as a health care provider. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Not for quick reference.
Review: This book is very good for assessment and admission questions. It goes system by system and gives you translations.

It is not for quick reference when speaking to a patient. I find it frustrating to look through the book when I want to ask a simple question, or need to give a bit of information. I have found myself using translation software on the WWW when communicating with Spanish speaking patients and their families as opposed to using this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not for quick reference.
Review: This book is very good for assessment and admission questions. It goes system by system and gives you translations.

It is not for quick reference when speaking to a patient. I find it frustrating to look through the book when I want to ask a simple question, or need to give a bit of information. I have found myself using translation software on the WWW when communicating with Spanish speaking patients and their families as opposed to using this book.