The ACGME is excited to announce the availability of its new Language Equity in Health Care Toolkit, a partnership with the American Medical Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, and the National Council for Interpreting in Healthcare. The toolkit is part of ACGME Equity Matters®, with the goal of providing educational content and access to resources to improve language equity in health care and graduate medical education.
A vast majority of US medical residency applicants report some skills in at least one non-English language, and research shows that physicians often use their non-English skills to communicate directly with patients and underutilize professional interpreters, even when they recognize their language skills are limited. Patients with non-English language preference (NELP) comprise over 20 percent of the US population, and frequently experience worse outcomes and lower satisfaction in health care than English speakers due to miscommunication and harmful adverse events. With appropriate education, training, and assessment, multilingual physicians’ linguistic capital has the potential to greatly benefit patient populations with NELP, yet their skills are commonly unassessed, underrecognized, and undervalued in health care and medical education settings. To address these gaps, the Language Equity in Health Care Toolkit helps users:
- Learn when to work with professional interpreters
- Learn how providing language-appropriate care will improve outcomes
- Support multilingual physician learners
- Learn how to advocate for appropriate language services
This toolkit will present new information for many faculty members and program directors who interact with physician learners in medical education settings. The lack of language-appropriate care not only has negative effects on patient care, but also on learning experiences for residents, fellows, and medical students. This toolkit was developed with interdisciplinary partners with the aim of being applied by individuals in medical schools, health care organizations, professional interpreter organizations, and anyone interested in increasing language equity in health care.
Access the Language Equity in Health Care Toolkit through the ACGME’s digital learning platform, Learn at ACGME. Note that a free account is required to access the toolkit.
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