AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND DEAF CULTURE COMPETENCY OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICAL STUDENTS

THE STUDY examined the effectiveness of a workshop on Deaf culture and basic medical American Sign Language for increasing osteopathic ASL-using patients. Students completed a pretest in which they provided student physicians' confidence and knowledge when interacting withASL-using patients. Students completed a pretest in which they provided basic demographic information, rated their confidence levels, took a video quiz on basic medical signs, and experienced a practical standardized encounter with a deaf patient. They then attended a 4-hourworkshop and, 2 weeks later, completed a posttest. Thirty-three stdents posttest. Video quiz scores increased significantly from pretest to pletion of the workshop. Students also reported increased levels of confidence in interactions with the Deaf community. The results suggest that a single workshop was effective in increasing both confidence and short-term knowledge in interactions with Deaf patients.