The addition of courses for the new Spanish minor has yielded a valuable partnership between Drake students and Primary Health Care, a walk-in clinic located near Southridge Mall.

Students in Professor Inbal Mazar’s Spring semester class, Spanish for Healthcare Providers, shadowed language interpreters to experience the depth and breadth of their health and medical language vocabulary and usage. During this assignment, the 16 students brainstormed various ways they could give back to the organization, in thanks for the opportunity to collaborate with the clinic. They decided to create an eight-minute training video. The video outlines how to be culturally sensitive while explaining patient management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The resulting video is in English with Spanish language subtitles.

The project itself was a collaborative effort between world languages and cultures and James McNab, media producer for Drake, who trained students in video production, and Sally Haack, associate professor of clinical sciences in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The video can be viewed on YouTube and is available on the world languages and cultures page.

If you have questions about world languages and cultures programs, contact Marc Pinheiro-Cadd at marc.pinheiro-cadd@drake.edu, or for questions about the Spanish for Healthcare Providers course, contact Inbal Mazar at inbal.mazar@drake.edu.

—Dorothy Pisarski, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication