[Hebrew knowledge of new immigrant physicians].
Since 1989, 10,000 physicians have immigrated to Israel, mostly from the former Soviet Union. Lack of a reasonable command of Hebrew, the language of the Israeli medical system, is likely to adversely affect doctor-patient communication and cause critical errors. We report the development of a structured, written examination to assess knowledge of medical Hebrew. It was administered to 67 Russian immigrant physicians and the results indicated low proficiency in Hebrew in general, and in medical Hebrew in particular. There was a significant correlation with extent of general medical knowledge.
Communication Barriers↗