Expand your Accent Boundaries Beyond Standards in Healthcare Interviews

Description

Many African and Latino students are graduating from healthcare programs such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants training. There is sometimes a gap between the professional speech and language clarity needed in those positions and patients’ ability to understand strongly accented American English. Some experienced candidates with strong accents may not be understood well in a phone interview for a job for which they are qualified. An accent expert will provide 10 tips in healthcare phone employment interviews for better understanding of accented speakers.

Marlene Schoenberg and Lila Kelly, two seasoned consultants who have worked with multicultural clients, team together to provide guidelines for accent and language inclusion. Discussion topics will balance interviewers’ practical linguistic knowledge, awareness of a candidate’s English abilities and bona fide occupational requirements to prevent accent discrimination.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn 10 tips and five “interviewer strengths” for best listening practices to understand Spanish and African accents and cultural voices.
• Provide research data, case studies and tools for greater accent inclusion in phone interviews and after the candidate is hired.
• Use bona fide occupational qualifications, linguistic knowledge, and awareness of unconscious bias to prevent national origin discrimination.