Course Description:
Undergraduate students interested in health, social work, or related fields who are fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, or Tagalog are welcome to apply. A language assessments are conducted prior to admission to the mandatory Decal, which acquaints new Volunteer Health Interpreters Organization (VHIO) volunteers with health interpretation practices.

The Health Care Interpreting Decal aims to train fluent, bilingual students to interpret, or verbally translate, for health workers and patients in various healthcare settings in different languages in the San Francisco Bay Area for Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Tagalog languages. Students of all linguistic backgrounds will be introduced to 1) the theory, concepts, and skills in healthcare interpreting, 2) the complexity of the roles and responsibilities of interpreters in healthcare setting and skills to carry out those functions, 3) the ethical principles, considerations, and strategies to handle challenges they may encounter as healthcare interpreters, and 4) the anatomical terms and diseases often encountered in the healthcare settings. Students will apply these principles and skills and familiarize themselves to common medical terminologies during the language group simulation practice section of the class. The language group practice section will focus on the specific areas of healthcare that VHIO will be working on during the semester, such as physical therapy, dentistry, and end-of-life care, so that students who are also members of VHIO will be able to get continuous practice that prepares them for actual interpreting sessions at clinics and events.

Teaching Method
We utilize The California Endowment’s 57-hour Connecting Worlds: Training for Health Care Interpreters curriculum to provide professional training. Students who successfully complete the class will know the basic standards and protocols of a professional interpreter. The weekly 3 hours of class are split into lecture on the first day and language practice sessions on the second.
The first 1.5 hour lecture focuses on the topics including the California standards of healthcare interpretation, basic anatomy, and biological systems. Lectures will be taught in English.
The next 1.5 hour language section is practice time, which involves students breaking into language groups led by language coaches to practice medical terminology and roleplays in their target interpretation language.

Course Material:
VHIO Fall 2017 Reader (to be released in the Fall)
Additional readings will be distributed during class, emailed to students, or posted onto bCourses. Assigned readings need to be completed prior to class each week. Students may be assigned to facilitate the discussion of the readings each week.

Grading:
This course is offered pass or nopass (P/NP). To earn a passing grade (P), students must earn a 70% or higher at the end of the course.

30% Final Exam
25% Midterm Exam
25% Homework and Quizzes
10% Health Awareness Project
10% Attendance / Participation

Homework:
Terminology worksheets from the reader will be assigned weekly. Homework will be graded for completion, but students also will take weekly quizzes to test their mastery of the vocabulary.

Exams:
Both the midterm exam and the final exam consist of written and verbal portions. Students will be tested on their knowledge of terminology, interpretation fluency and etiquettes through a role play. There will also be questions (true/false) based on lecture material and scenario questions. Students who demonstrate good progress and satisfactory grades on the midterm exam are eligible to participate in field work (approximately 4 volunteering hours per month).

Health Awareness Project
The first week of class, students will pick a healthcare topic to research. The topic should be approached from various perspectives, including but not limited to biostatistics (prevalence and incidence), pathology (disease cause, mechanism, and symptoms), sociology (living cultures), and public health (available healthcare resources). At the end of the DeCal, students will compile their information onto a fact sheet, translate the fact sheet into the students’ target language, and present their topics during the language section. Students who successfully pass this project may become part of our Community Health Awareness Program, which is a new VHIO project that aims to inform and educate patients with basic medical information and encourage them to be aware of their health condition.

Attendance/Participation:
Two excused absences are allowed. More absences will result in an NP. If students have any conflicts, they must email calvhioeducation@gmail.com at least 24 hours in advance. Participation during discussions of the reading and during language practice will be noted.

Student’s attendance and participation for Monday lectures will be assessed through Kahoot, an interactive online platform, where students can answer check-up questions throughout the lecture.

This Decal is offered through a registered student organization on campus called Volunteer Health Interpreters Organization (VHIO), a club dedicated to eliminating the language barrier in healthcare settings by providing free interpretation services in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Tagalog languages. Therefore, it is offered exclusively to the club's new members in order to train them for future volunteer events. Any students interested in this course should complete the application on the club’s website (www.calvhio.org/join/). After completing the online application, applicants will be selected based on the quality of their applications for interviews, where fluency in both languages will be assessed.