The Pop Wuj Clinic - Medical Spanish Program

At the heart of the Pop Wuj clinic project is vision for quality, sustainable healthcare delivered to the most vulnerable residents of Quetzaltenango and several villages in the surrounding rural highlands of Guatemala.

The project, started in 2006 by an Emergency Medicine resident, is now a model of for grassroots, collective efforts between a nationally recognized academic medical center in New York City, a thriving socially-minded Spanish language school, and our NGO partners at the Timmy Foundation and Todos Juntos.

Medical Spanish Program
Since June 2002, Pop Wuj - Spanish School Guatemala has offered a Medical Spanish Program for medical students, providers, public health professionals, and other healthcare practitioners (e.g., doctors, nurses, paramedics, physical therapists). For years we have attracted a growing number of healthcare students and professionals who would like to learn Medical Spanish. The Medical Spanish Program provides health and medical education as well as clinical experience in Guatemala.
One of the most important goals of Pop Wuj’s Medical Spanish Program is to increase students’ cultural competency in addition to their Spanish language skills. To deliver healthcare in a compassionate way, with the knowledge of the culture and history of the population one works with, is an essential value to Pop Wuj’s vision of the Medical Spanish Program.

When Is It Offered?

This special program is offered all year round, beginning the first and third Monday of each month and continues for at least four weeks.

What You Can Expect

There are five core components to our program:
 - 4h Daily - One-to-One Spanish Tuition with supplemental curriculum for medical Spanish
- 2-5h a Day - Participation in the Medical Spanish Program & Clinical experience in the Pop Wuj Clinic (suitable for elective rotation)

- Lectures targeting cultural competencies for one week in addition to the One-to-One Spanish Instruction
- Homestay with a Guatemalan family in a private room with three meals a day, safe drinking water and a hot shower
- Spanish School Activities (except transportation / entrance fees)
 

Spanish Medical Terminology
The program’s foundation is the one-to-one classroom setting. The goal of the classroom lessons is to give every student the tools (Medical Spanish Terms) necessary to take a history and perform a physical examination in Spanish or address simple healthcare needs. Outside the classroom, students have access to medical conferences (topics ranging from the Guatemalan healthcare  system to endemic diseases to local, non-traditional medicines), which are simultaneously translated from Spanish to English, and hands-on clinical volunteer experience. Additionally, medical students, nurses, and doctors studying at Pop Wuj can receive further history and physical tutoring from Guatemalan medical students and residents. The clinical experience in the Pop-Wuj Clinic is suitable for an elective rotation for medicine students and credits are given by most Medical Schools.

The way the program is structured is all students have 4 hours a day of individualized language instruction “One-to-One Spanish Tuition” and participate in the Medical Spanish Program the other 2-5 hours a day. During the beginning of the student’s stay, the Medical Spanish program consists more of the supplemental curriculum including cultural competency lectures, workshops, and observation at the clinics. We feel it is important that patients encounter compassion and understanding, in accordance to their own traditional beliefs and value systems, which every human being deserves. For this reason, Pop Wuj Spanish School Guatemala offers cultural competency lectures in the first week. Topics include historical, social-cultural, and economic information in relation to healthcare delivery and issues in Guatemala. This information complements what is learned in the classroom and clinical placement. As mentioned before, cultural competency is an important part of the mission of Pop Wuj—to be dedicated to the respect and understanding of the beliefs, values, and traditions that form the foundation and survival of the people of Guatemala.

For participants, the medical program gives the opportunity for a better understanding of the origin, development, treatment, and cultural characteristics of certain illnesses. Participants are encouraged to select and research a health topic of interest, develop an essay, and, toward the end of the program, present their work to other participants in a round-table discussion atmosphere. Frequently, program participants have used these essays to give health education presentations to patients who wait their turn in a clinic waiting room or beneficiaries of other Pop Wuj community development projects. This is a significant part of preventative medicine and education for many community members. These presentations and round-table discussions are given completely in Spanish and provide program participants of all levels the opportunity to demonstrate their progress.
As the student’s Spanish language ability becomes more proficient, patient interactions become more frequent. This is determined by the student, the teacher, and the clinic director. By the end of the student’s stay, much of his/her participation in the Medical Spanish program consists of clinical activity. Clinical activity begins the second week of the program and is contingent upon participation in the supplemental curriculum.

It is important that participants in the Medical Spanish program understand that it will be difficult to have time for tourist activities. It is possible to travel on the weekend, however the week is well structured with classes and activities. In addition, it will be a different experience from those enrolled in the regular Spanish Immersion Course with additional hours for clinic time, lectures, and mobile clinics.

Elective Rotation
Many medical students choose the Medical Spanish Program as an elective rotation. For an elective rotation most medical schools mandate a placement over one month in a medical clinic away or abroad from their home school in order to award credits. Pop-Wuj will provide you with documentation upon completion of your Medical Spanish Program before you leave the country.  Please be sure to bring any required paperwork with you!

The Pop Wuj Medical Clinic
Staffed by a local doctor, the clinic will serve scholarship students, children at the “La Guardería” or day-care center , women and children in our stove projects, Pop Wuj teachers and families, and the local public. It will also be a place for visiting doctors, practitioners of other health-related disciplines, and groups of students from around the world to attend to patients while improving their own Medical Spanish skills. Based on years of work in Xela and the rural areas that surround the city, Pop Wuj teachers believe that lack of access to healthcare is one of the most pressing problems in present-day Guatemala. The Pop Wuj Medical Clinic exists to address that need. Since its opening, the Pop Wuj Medical Clinic has opened its doors to students and healthcare professionals interested in helping in this process with donations of time, ideas, money or equipment !