A patient is in pain and needs your help, but you cannot understand what they are saying—what do you do?
The Spanish-speaking population is on the rise, and having at least a basic understanding of medical Spanish can help you better help others.
You are reading: Best medical spanish books
The good news is that there are many top-notch Spanish learning resources created with medical professionals in mind!
The following resources will teach you essential medical vocabulary and phrases, bedside manners, and other Spanish that will be useful in your field of work
content
- online courses
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- 1. medicalspanish.com
- 2. Spanish for medical professionals i
- 3. Medical Spanish (lengalia)
- 4. Spanish for Medical Professionals (University of New Hampshire)
- 5. Spanish medical terminology for health professionals (ania)
- 6. Spanish for Successful Communication in Healthcare Settings (Rice University)
- 7. Spanish medical canopy
- 8. be careful to translate
- 9. practicing Spanish
- 10. “Spanish in the field of medicine” by the smithville public library
- 11. Spanish medical tailor language
- 12. “Spanish for health professionals”
- 13. “Medical Spanish done incredibly quickly!”
online courses
1. medicoespanol.com
The well-curated site medicalspanish.com offers specialized courses for various medical professionals, including physicians and practitioners, hospital nurses, office nurses, physician assistants, first responders, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and medical receptionists.
Choose the course that is most relevant to what you need on a daily basis. in this way, you will learn the types of vocabulary and phrases necessary for your specific professional field.
Courses are completely online and self-paced, so you can easily fit them into your busy schedule. introduce key words and phrases, without the need to learn grammar. each section comes with its own notes that you can print out for further practice.
Course prices start at $69 for six months of access and include a certificate of completion. six months should be enough, since the course is estimated to last about 25 hours.
If you don’t want to commit to a course, you might want to check out some of their free learning resources.
download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable pdf that you can take anywhere. click here for a copy. (download)
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2. Spanish for medical professionals i
This course on ed2go requires a total of 24 hours of coursework over six weeks. there’s a new start date each month, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to join.
is designed for students with no previous Spanish experience and focuses on “survival” Spanish for the medical profession: common phrases you’ll need to ask about symptoms, insurance, etc. You’ll also learn some basic Spanish, like colors, directions, numbers, verb conjugation, and more.
the starter is $149 by itself. Those who are more serious about medical Spanish can take the full Medical Spanish series, which includes both the first and second courses.
If your Spanish is already pretty good, you might want to consider skipping right into the second course, which includes specialized categories like mental health, oncology, dentistry, and more.
3. medical Spanish (lengalia)
The medical Spanish of Lengalia is a course that can be taken by all people related to medicine.
However, keep in mind that the course has been designed for students who have at least a b1 level of Spanish, so if your level is lower, this course will be very challenging for you.
With five lessons and a final test, this course will teach you a lot of vocabulary and expressions that are used specifically in medical and hospital settings.
Each lesson is divided into several sections. First of all, there is a series of dialogues with native audio (Spanish) that allow students to become familiar with the topic and take a look at the vocabulary of the lesson.
After that, there is specialized reading (called a “supplement”), dialogue/reading comprehension exercises, listening comprehension activities, exercise videos, and a vocabulary list.
The different vocabulary lists can be studied and reviewed in the form of flashcards, which can be downloaded for free when purchasing the course.
4. Spanish for Medical Professionals (University of New Hampshire)
This course offered by the University of New Hampshire is perfect for anyone with no prior knowledge of Spanish.
starts with simple topics like Spanish pronunciation, colors, and family, and teaches you Spanish vocabulary and grammar while slowly introducing medical terminology on topics ranging from the body to medical tests to pregnancy.
The course addresses the topic of Latin American families (lesson 2), which will be useful to understand the cultural component of your patients.
There are two versions of this course, both at $139.
a version has specific start dates and includes the help of an instructor. the other version does not have an instructor, but you can take the course whenever you want.
5. Spanish medical terminology for health professionals (ania)
The American Association of Nursing Informatics (ANIA) offers this 12-hour Spanish medical terminology course divided into three modules.
The first module is an introduction to the Spanish language. includes topics such as pronunciation, listening comprehension, sentence structure, and word order.
The second module teaches the terminology related to the doctor’s office and the third covers the vocabulary needed in the exam room.
the course includes a printable book on human anatomy and medical terminology in Spanish.
Despite being a bit pricey at $249, you’ll get 12 to 14.4 ce credits after completing it.
6. Spanish for Successful Communication in Healthcare Settings (Rice University)
With over 60 videos (or, as they call them, virtual classes), 96 lectures, plenty of exercises and interactive practice, and five quizzes, this course, offered by the university of rice on coursera, is possibly one of the the most comprehensive free courses on the subject you will ever find.
It is divided into four modules with four lessons each.
Each module covers one step in the doctor-patient journey, from the preliminary interview to the physical examination and the final diagnosis and treatment.
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The last module focuses on the communication difficulties that can arise between a doctor and his patient.
The course is completely in Spanish, so it is recommended for intermediate or advanced students.
You can purchase a certificate of completion after you pass all the quizzes and finish the course, but the course is completely free.
applications
technology is getting better and better and nowadays we can learn practically anything on the go thanks to smartphones and, in particular, applications.
learning languages with applications has become very popular, but is medical and health Spanish included in them?
There are some very popular language learning apps that include some lessons on general health, body parts and diseases, although there is little else to be found in popular apps related to the field of medicine.
duolingo, for example, includes some lessons on health and hospitals, but they are so short and so advanced that they are not worth the medical resource.
The same thing happens with the rosetta stone. This is not an app designed to teach you medical Spanish, so other than some common body part or illness, you won’t find much there (although rosetta stone company does include a health course in Spanish, this is not a course intended for individuals).
To learn medical Spanish with an app, the best option is to opt for one that has been specifically designed for it.
These apps can be hard to find, but some of them are true masterpieces.
To help you get started, I’ve selected three that I personally know and enjoy.
7. Spanish medical canopy
available: browser | ios | android
canopy is primarily aimed at doctors and nurses through its apps and website, although anyone can use it to learn medical Spanish. the program is available online and offers a certificate of completion.
Even though this is a serious learning tool for medical professionals, it still knows how to have fun with its learning – each canopy lesson is featured alongside a medical soap opera.
To start, the canopy is $225 for the first level.
If you’re looking for a more basic option, Canopy also has two apps that are completely free.
The main app, canopy speak (linked above) offers phrases in 15 languages, including Spanish. The app teaches over 4,500 medical phrases in nine specialties, including dentistry, pediatrics, and general surgery.
although you can also use canopy for serious studying, this program is designed more for quick and easy translation without having to know the language.
The second app, canopy quest, is only available for ios users. It is also designed to help you learn medical Spanish in a game-like way. The app has you role-play through real-world scenarios to practice your Spanish speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.
8. be careful to translate
available: ios | android
care to translate is a fantastic app for healthcare professionals and patients, and since it’s a medical translator, you can even use it if you don’t know much Spanish yet.
First, choose whether you are a patient or a healthcare professional. then choose a genre, source language, and target language, and you’re ready to go.
You’ll get free access to over 500 words and full sentences translated and spoken by native speakers on medical topics like symptoms, physical exam, the body, surgery, and even childbirth, just to name a few.
all questions have been phrased in such a way that the other person only has to answer “yes” or “no” or use their body language (for example, there are some questions that require the patient to show a number, which is can do with your fingers).
You can also use the search bar at the bottom of the screen to search for any medical word in both the source and target languages.
If you decide to go premium, you get a seven-day free trial and unlimited access to over 1,500 medical terms and expressions.
free online resources
9. practicing spanish
This free website offers a wide variety of helpful resources for anyone in the medical profession.
Practicing Spanish offers lessons in basic Spanish such as travel vocabulary, as well as more specialized topics such as anatomy. It even has a collection of folk songs and cultural information, if you want to learn a little more about the Spanish language than just the medical side.
Best of all, Practice Spanish has lessons organized by profession so that anyone working in the medical field can learn words and phrases that will be immediately useful. There are lessons for receptionists, aides, nurses, EMTs, 911 operators, and specific specialty areas. each lesson comes with audio and text.
Finally, the website offers a featured medical dialogue each month to help you practice key words and phrases in context. there is also an archive of old dialogs, which you can search by medical condition for hyper-specific study.
10. “spanish in the medical field” by the smithville public library
This helpful YouTube video provided by a library in Texas offers lessons on basic Spanish, body parts, patient complaints, and medical scenarios.
Information appears in both print and audio, making it excellent for anyone looking to learn basic medical Spanish or reinforce information from other resources.
11. Spanish medical tailor language
language tailor offers more than 50 free youtube videos on medical Spanish. The wide range of resources is great for anyone from a novice Spanish speaker looking to learn the basics to more advanced speakers needing specialized vocabulary.
lessons include basic greetings, grammar, anatomy, location directions, presentation of treatment options, and much more. With audio and text, these video lessons will provide you with a comprehensive education in medical Spanish.
The videos on this channel are incredibly old (over 10 years!), so the website advertised in the videos is no longer available. however, since all the videos are still available to view, the channel remains a treasure trove for students.
books
12. “Spanish for health professionals”
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william c. Harvey’s “Spanish for Health Professionals” offers a wide variety of words and phrases intended for doctors, nurses, and other health workers, including social workers, dentists, and optometrists.
There are basic Spanish lessons to help you understand the language, followed by more specialized sections on topics like anatomy, patient admissions, and specific scenarios dealing with issues like broken bones, drug problems, pregnancy, prescription drugs, and accidents.
The basic Spanish section makes this book accessible even to beginning Spanish learners, but more advanced students will still benefit from the abundance of specific medical terms and phrases.
13. “Medical Spanish done incredibly fast!”
“medical Spanish done incredibly quickly!” is designed for the working professional.
It’s pocket-sized, so you can take it to work and use it as a handy phrase book. plus, the pages can be erased so you can write notes and erase them to free up space as needed.
Conveniently, the book is based on “yes” or “no” questions to help you easily understand any patient’s responses. In this way, you can memorize phrases and get information even if you really don’t speak Spanish very well.
“medical Spanish done incredibly quickly!” also offers a picture dictionary. if you don’t know a word, you can point to a related picture for the patient.
This book won’t teach you Spanish but it will help if you can’t think of a particular word or if you want to study some key words to use in your field.
why learn medical spanish anyway?
Sure, now you’re armed with a collection of great resources to help you learn Medical Spanish. but why should you even bother?
Learning to communicate effectively in Spanish and in a professional manner shows respect and can also help you achieve goals that may otherwise seem impossible.
If you’re still looking for a job, knowing Spanish can give you an edge in the healthcare field.
Learning Spanish will improve your employability in various professional fields, including health care. Even without a nursing or medical education, there are plenty of healthcare careers where knowing Spanish will help you get your foot in the door. for example, many hospitals and clinics need bilingual receptionists and medical translators.
Learning Spanish can also improve your employment options if you are already in health care. In areas with a large Spanish-speaking population, speaking Spanish can help you gain a better position.
Of course, most importantly, knowing Spanish as a healthcare professional can allow you to better help patients.
seeking medical care is stressful even in your native language; Imagine how stressful it is for native Spanish speakers to have the added stress of having to speak English when they go to the doctor. You can remove some of this stress and gain a more accurate idea of what a patient is experiencing by learning Medical Spanish.
how to practice medical spanish
They say practice makes perfect, and that’s even more accurate when it comes to medical professionals.
When you start to learn medical Spanish, probably the first thing you do is learn medical vocabulary, but what should you do with those words?
Practicing medical Spanish may seem difficult at first. you can’t just go to a hospital and start speaking Spanish with random people.
first, you need to be prepared for the real deal.
Here’s what you can do to put those medical words to good use:
- learn Spanish. or rather, at least learn the basics of the language and get a solid grammatical foundation. it would be a challenge to survive with only a few words and expressions learned by heart. if you have a grasp of the language as a whole, it will be easier to use the vocabulary you already know (and learn a bit more).
- Use native material when learning. As you saw in this post, there are plenty of resources to learn medical Spanish, but not all of them are native speakers.
These resources are great for learning vocabulary, but if you want more than just words, you’ll need to expose yourself to native Spanish speakers who actually use their language. start listening to medical podcasts, watch medical shows, follow medical youtube channels, etc.
Another option to learn with authentic content is through the fluentu language learning program: the selected library is full of short videos where you can hear how natives actually use Spanish on many different topics.
Watch and learn in fluentu with native videos, including clips from medical shows like “The Hypochondriac,” videos from a real doctor’s office, nursery rhymes and cartoons perfect for learning the basics, funny skits about dentists, and more.
The videos in fluentu will introduce you to key terms related to the medical professions, while the interactive subtitles will allow you to check the definition of any word in the video on demand. You can even add words as flashcards to custom vocabulary lists (for example, you can make separate lists for “at the doctor’s office” and “dental words”), and then practice them with multimedia exercises.
You can even access fluentu on your phone to learn a little more during downtime at the office with the ios and android apps.
By practicing shadowing, you will improve your pronunciation, intonation and rhythm. you will also improve your speaking skills, vocabulary and grammar, as well as make it easier for Spanish speakers to understand you.
Surely you know categories such as business English or English for marketing, but there are also medical English courses, English for health professionals, English for nurses and many other specialized courses where you can learn everything you need.
Online courses have the advantage of having been prepared by professionals in the field. these courses allow interactions and discussions, and include material to practice the theory.
If you work in the United States or any other country that doesn’t speak Spanish, learn about the culture of Latin American countries in general. if you plan to go or move to a specific country, focus first on learning about its culture.
Overall, the more knowledge you have, the easier it will be to put it into practice.
With these 13 great resources for learning medical Spanish, you’ll never have to leave a Spanish-speaking patient suffering due to a language barrier.
Now, go back out there and do the work you love, in Spanish.
download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable pdf that you can take anywhere. click here for a copy. (download)
