The 2016 Azúcar Outreach was a pharmacy student lead health fair at St. Stephan the Martyr Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio. There were cholesterol screenings, vision screenings, diabetes screenings as well as other preliminary health screening tests and educational booths. This has all of the characteristics of a typical pharmacy outreach, except for the fact that all the patients/health fair goers were Spanish speakers. As a licensed pharmacist intern and a Spanish speaker, I was stationed at the cholesterol screening booth. I was in charge of translating for the two upperclassmen pharmacy students who were actually running the cholesterol tests, and it was my job to explain the results and provide education and recommendations for each patient.

This outreach made me realize that the Spanish-English barrier is a huge problem in today’s healthcare system. Many of the patients I interacted with could speak either very little English or none at all. In an English dominated healthcare system, non-English speakers are left in the dark when it comes to their own healthcare. The older patients that came through the cholesterol booth were the highest risk of falling through the cracks of the healthcare system. One older woman, who I counseled, spoke no English and could not read. She did not understand the informational handout (in Spanish) and needed information at a very basic level.

Sometimes, as healthcare professionals, it can be difficult to understand that there are populations that simply don’t have access to health care and even when they do, they can’t understand doctors or pharmacists or other healthcare workers. This outreach helped us as students to learn compassion and empathy, but more importantly, a population who may not have received care got to be seen by healthcare professionals. They got to ask us questions about their own health and wellness status.

The scariest part of this outreach was actually speaking in Spanish with native Spanish speakers. As a student of Spanish (not my first language), I was nervous to speak with what I call “real life Spanish speakers” rather than classmates. To be honest, minutes before the health fair began I was sweating and frantically looking over the Spanish cholesterol education handout to make sure I was saying the right things and writing down potentially helpful Spanish words when counseling. During all this hectic prep work, I didn’t even think to go over what the actual results meant. So for my first counseling session with a patient, I was handed two numbers, one a blood glucose number and the other was the cholesterol level, and I just smiled and said, “lo siento, un momento,” ran over to the preceptor pharmacist and learned the numbers and how to counsel.

Some of the patients looked relieved when I explained their results in Spanish; others abruptly replied back that they could understand English. Sometimes it was hard to gauge what level of language each patient was but nevertheless it was always good to start off with “hola, ¿como estás?” The patients didn’t care if I made grammar mistakes, they simply appreciated that we made a good effort to make them comfortable.

By the end of the outreach, the scariness of speaking in Spanish had worn off, and I walked around with a new confidence not only in my Spanish skills, but also my ability to counsel and use real pharmaceutical knowledge. Bridging the language barrier in healthcare will help to seal the cracks of populations of non-English speakers failing to receive proper healthcare. To all healthcare professionals and future healthcare professionals, go the distance when it comes to patients: step out of your comfort zone, be that a new language or simply starting a dialogue with a patient who may have slipped through the cracks otherwise. And always remember that "it's a beautiful day to save lives."