Program Descriptions
These courses offered by the Hispanic Health Initiatives (HHI) are specially designed for students, nurses, faculty and staff who want to learn basic phrases, grammar, and vocabulary in Spanish related to health care. The areas of focus for both the Beginner and the Intermediate courses are for conversation focusing on health, proper pronunciation and basic grammar, vocabulary related to healthcare and culturally competent care for Hispanic patients. Both the Beginner and the Intermediate courses are offered every Spring and Fall semesters and have recently become recognized by MUSC as interdisciplinary.
In collaboration with this organization, HHI develops and promotes conferences related to language access, cultural competency for health professionals and activities fostering health careers among high school students. An additional focus is on the recruitment of minorities into health professions.
These scholars are selected in their first semester of the accelerated BSN program. To participate in this program students must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher accompanied by a teacher recommendation. Once admitted into the program, these students exist as a clinical group throughout the remainder of their education experience at MUSC. During these three semesters the students receive additional opportunities to focus on cultural effectiveness, immigrant health issues and social justice. Such opportunities include on-campus seminars with community members and clinical activities in neighborhoods with diverse populations.
Through the HHI, students from all colleges on the MUSC campus and some select interns from outside institutions participate with faculty in areas of research and community programming. For example, students participated in a community needs assessment of the Latino/Hispanic population in Charleston County with Dr. Charlene Pope and Dr. Deborah Williamson. Students have also helped with health fairs on Johns Island and in North Charleston and in health promotion activities with ABRAZOS: Mom's Morning Out. The MUSC Presidential Scholars have also been involved in community outreach related to the HHI.
The HHI faculty works with other faculty and staff in the College of Nursing to promote recruitment and retention of minority students. Examples of this are health career programs at local public schools, mentoring incoming students and encouraging involvement in HHI activities.
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