TIHAI Scholars Spotlight: Daniela Lopez Goicochea & Riley Aronson

Daniela Lopez Goicochea V’21 & Riley Aronson V’21

Providing Spanish language access to Tufts veterinary clientele: Breaking down barriers and fortifying the human-animal bond through communication

Our shared summer goal was to implement more Spanish resources & medical Spanish interpretation services for the clients of Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic and the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts. We have created a comprehensive medical veterinary Spanish vocabulary guide as a resource for Spanish-speaking veterinary professionals, translated numerous discharge summaries into Spanish, and interpreted for the clinic on certain days of the week. We also compiled a resource guide on language interpretation for the community medicine module for veterinary students entering their clinical rotations to explain the role of an interpreter and why language interpretation is crucial for ethical, effective, and culturally sensitive care. As a result of the more inclusive and culturally-sensitive environment we are promoting, we also anticipate a strengthening of the human-animal bond between our Spanish-speaking clients and their pets.