Jessica Liu and Amy Wang, fourth-year medical students at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, received a Wild Card Ribbon in the innovation category for their poster presentation at the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) National Conference last month in Nashville.
The poster was co-authored by fourth-year MD student Michelle Yan and faculty advisor Tao Wang, MD, PhD, FACP, a clinical assistant professor at the WSU College of Medicine and hospitalist in the Tri-Cities area.
Their presentation, titled “Medical Chinese: A Student-Driven Initiative for Language Skills Development in Medical Education,” highlighted the College of Medicine’s Medical Chinese registered student organization (RSO) and the work members have done to reduce language barriers in healthcare. Created in 2022, the club now has 42 members.
Students organize events to practice Mandarin medical vocabulary, encourage culturally competent care, and engage in community outreach to continue their learning.
In the past two years, the group has hosted three Tri-Cities Chinese Community Health Fairs to provide free health services and offer an opportunity for students to develop their language skills. A survey of participating community members and focus group study with medical students showed enthusiasm from both groups to continue their language learning. For instance, students can take a fourth-year elective course medical Chinese.
“I am incredibly proud of the students’ accomplishment and the meaningful impact of this student-driven initiative,” said Dr. Wang, who supervised the work. “This project is not only about language learning, but also taking responsibility to conquer disparities in healthcare.”
This work was supported by a CIPHERS seed grant and the Tri-Cities regional medical campus.
“We are grateful to Dr. Dawn DeWitt for the support through the CIPHERS program, and would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Farion Williams at the Tri-Cities campus,” Dr. Wang added.