In a 2020 analysis of data from the World Health Organization’s National Health Workforce Accounts, it was estimated that there were around 65.1 million healthcare workers worldwide, including 29.1 million nurses, 12.7 million physicians, and 3.7 million pharmacists. These clinicians represent thousands of communities and speak any of the more than 7000 languages in use worldwide. Despite this, many leading continuing medical education (CME) providers create their materials primarily in English.
Having a common language that transcends borders can be helpful in medicine, but are we doing clinicians a disservice by not proving them with continuing education in their preferred language?
A recent survey of EU and UK physicians conducted by Medscape Education found that an overwhelming 79% of respondents preferred to take online CME in their preferred language. Of those respondents, 70% felt that education that was offered in their preferred language had more of an impact on their practice than English-language alone. Further, an analysis of learners and their CME assessment scores showed that there was a 70% increase in knowledge acquisition when content is consumed in their preferred language versus English.
These findings are supported by another study that experimented with adding native-language and English-language subtitles to an English-language education activity. It was found that adding native-language subtitles to a learning activity supported the lowest cognitive load and had the highest instructional efficiency. Simply put, clinicians whose first language is something other than English learn better in their native language, and they prefer to do so.
Providing non-English resources, however, is about more than just meeting clinician preferences; it is also a matter of health equity. When a more equitable learning environment is created through a reduction in linguistic and cultural barriers, by providing non-English-language resources, we mitigate the risk for gaps in care and non-optimal outcomes that occur when critical updates and guidelines take too long to reach clinicians in non-English-speaking communities.
Moreover, medical fluency in languages other than English can lead to better care for patients across the US and Europe. The thousands of languages spoken worldwide include over 300 in the US and 24 official languages in Europe, with 200 spoken across the European continent. When patients and clinicians speak different languages, it can lead to disparities in care and ill-informed consent to treatment. Language-concordant care, on the other hand, can lead to better trust and optimised outcomes, and help advance health equity for patients.
And in-language education must expand beyond physicians to reach the entire care team, where not all will be fluent in English language. Nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists play a critical role in patient care, along with many other healthcare professionals (HCPs), and their continuing education must also be considered, and made accessible to meet the needs of their practice.
The answer and the need is clear – global providers of medical education must also meet local needs to optimise the educational impact. By helping physicians and other HCPs learn better, we can all achieve our overall goal – better outcomes for patients around the world.
References are available on request.
