Product Description

Updated with a new verb list, more vocabulary, more key phrases, and expanded exercise sections, this book teaches English-speaking doctors, nurses, and medical assistants some basic Spanish vocabulary to help them deal with Hispanic patients who speak little or no English. The book starts with pronunciation tips and offers advice on listening comprehension with special focus on words and phrases that are likely to be used in a medical setting. True-to-life dialogues recreate situations involving pregnancy, broken bones, pediatric care, heart and lung diseases, geriatric care, communicable diseases, drug problems, medical treatment of crime victims, and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #421669 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish

From the Inside Flap
(back cover)
Updated with more words, phrases, and exercises than ever, the new third edition also features two brand-new sections: one is focused to help health care receptionists, and the other concentrates on health insurance forms. This book will help doctors, nurses, and medical assistants communicate in Spanish with Latino patients and their families who have little or no command of English. Concentrating on words and phrases pertaining to medical circumstances, Spanish for Health Care Professionals presents true-to-life dialogues that dramatize situations as they typically occur in doctors’ offices and the hospital environment.

About the Author
William C. Harvey has taught Spanish and ESL on the West Coast, in public schools, community colleges, and in private industry, where he has organized language workshops and seminars. He is the author of several Spanish language learning books, all of which take an informal approach to language teaching.

Customer Reviews

For talking to Spanish speaking patients
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.

Excellent Self-Learning Resource for Health Care Providers
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!

Worth every penny!
My wife bought this book for me, and it was a Godsend. Chapter lessons are bite sized and arranged in logical/relational order; interpersonal phrases, cultural issues, admission, discharge, fundamental anatomy, hygiene issues, medication issue, etc.

In addition to these categories the book immediately teaches word pronunciation and basic sentence construction...in English sentence format. Perhaps this may sound backwards to a Spanish-speaking listener/patient; however, my message was immediately understood and acknowledged.

Bottom line, this book is an excellent jump off point for someone (like me) serving a high volume of Spanish-only speaking patients.