Complete Medical Spanish : A Practical Course for Quick and Confident Communication [Paperback]

Joanna Rios (Author), Jose Fernandez Torres (Author), Joanna Rios (Author), Jose Fernandez (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 007143979X | ISBN-13: 978-0071439794 | Publication Date: August 1, 2004 | Edition: 2

Designed for use either as a stand-alone guide or as a built-in part of the series' audio packages, McGraw-Hill: Complete Medical Spanish offers health care professionals an enjoyable way to quickly acquire the skills and confidence they need to communicate with their Spanish-speaking patients. Each chapter focuses on a specific set of key terms and phrases and includes dozens of illustrations to help enhance understanding. Unlike other guides that make no distinction between levels of difficulty, this book introduces essential grammar concepts in a progressive manner.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

All the tools you need to communicate confidently and effectively with your Spanish-speaking patients

As a dedicated healthcare provider you know that effective communication is key to providing patients with the high quality of care they deserve. And for medical professionals working in North America that often entails communicating with Spanish-speaking patients and their families.

A valuable resource for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, hospital technicians, emergency care providers, and medical administrators with little or no Spanish-language experience, this book provides you with all the Spanish you need to do your job.

More than a mere phrase book, McGraw-Hill’s Complete Medical Spanish features a complete, time-tested program guaranteed to help you:

• Understand and use a Spanish vocabulary of more than 2,500 general and medical terms
• Confidently interview patients, take histories, conduct physical exams, prescribe medication, and give follow-up instructions in Spanish
• Carry on spontaneous dialogues in Spanish using verbs in the past, present, future, and command forms
• Become more aware of major attitudinal differences between Latino and Anglo-American cultures and how they impact healthcare decisions

  McGraw-Hill's Complete Medical Spanish will teach you the skills needed to formulate original Spanish sentences and confidently dialogue with Spanish-speaking patients and their families. Available alone or as part of a three-CD audio package, McGraw-Hill’s Complete Medical Spanish is an indispensable “tool of the trade” for healthcare providers who work in a variety of multicultural settings.

About the Author

Joanna Ríos, Ph.D., and José Fernández Torres have been teaching medical Spanish for more than fifteen years. Their workshops are accredited by the American Medical Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Association of Family Physicians, and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007143979X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071439794
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, September 26, 2005

By 

S. Finn (Corona CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete Medical Spanish : A Practical Course for Quick and Confident Communication (Paperback)

I am a nurse who works with many Hispanic patients. This is the best book I have found for learning how to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients. Unlike many other books, it starts off (logically) with introductions and other simple phrases and then gets into conjugation of verbs later on. It has great exercises (with answers in the back!) that are helpful. It also includes variances of words that differ from country to country (e.g. Mexico vs. Puerto Rico, etc) and examples of phrases that don't translate well from English. I would definitely recommend this book if you want to learn how to communicate with your Spanish-speaking patients.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect!, January 7, 2007

By 

CW "Santa Monica working mom" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Medical Spanish : A Practical Course for Quick and Confident Communication (Paperback)

This book is exactly what I hoped for!

If you are a fairly intelligent, motivated learner who wants to start with the basics, progress quickly to the conversational level, and get a good grasp of grammar while learning medical words and phrases, this is the book for you.

I am now almost halfway through the book, and I have learned grammar, vocabulary, all the body parts I could ever need, and even slang words!

Another thing I like is that terms used in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world are discussed, so you will know which word to use, depending where you are (or where your patient is from).

Each chapter is broken down into sections. Each section starts with some vocabulary (and an accompanying picture). Then there might be a grammatical discussion or a discussion of how to talk about taking pills. Then there are some exercises (this is the only thing I think there could be more of, but you can always make up your own sentences for practice).

What this book is not: It is not a list of medical phrases that you have to memorize. That has been my experience with every other medical Spanish book... if that is what you are looking for, you are better off with a CD. However, I doubt you will really become conversational after memorizing a bunch of phrases.

It also is not great about helping you with pronounciation. However, you probably know 100 other people who speak Spanish, so just ask one of them to go through your vocabulary with you!

Bottom line: a perfect book for nurses, NP's, PA's, MD's who want to communicate better with their patients.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good value, April 8, 2006

By 

Just another reviewer (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Medical Spanish : A Practical Course for Quick and Confident Communication (Paperback)

I actually bought the 3 cd package written by the same authors called: 'spanish for family practitioners" for $23. Inside is this book, Complete Medical Spanish : A Practical Course for Quick and Confident Communication. I'd actually recommend getting the ones w/ 3 audio cd's since the vocabulary and dialogue is on cd and u could go around listening to it on the car. I had hs spanish so this book isn't too hard.

Pro's:
1. good value w/ 3 cd package.
2. poor value if u just get the book.
3. In the 3 cd package, the first 2 cd's have vocabulary in spanish/then english; and dialogue only in spanish for this book. The first cd has info from chapters 1-3. The 2nd cd has info for chapters 4-9. The 3rd cd has info from an extra booklet that's mainly dialogue (i.e. nurses, health professionals, EM, FP). persoanlly, i don't find the 3rd cd/booklet that useful at all for the FP section (I'd gotten the FP book simply cuz it was only one in stock when i ordered).


Con's
1. Some of the pics/icons look like a 3 yo drew them so not very good at identifying objects.
2. didn't like how they put most of the vocab in the beginning and left grammer for the end. i'd like it to be more intro to grammer in begining.
3. didn't like how the pics for body parts didn't list the english names of the objects...i.e. were they pointing to the forehead or hair?
4. they didn't have audio for some verbs, optho, derm, etc.
5. didn't feel that the fill-in exercises were that useful.

In summary, i'd say at $23 for book+3cd or $10 for book alone is a decent price. You get what u pay for so I can't complain too much. The cd w/ vocab was main reason i got it, and it's cheaper than the other products out there.