When patient education materials need to be distributed to persons with Limited English Proficiency, including monolingual speakers of oral languages and people who are deaf, it is advisable to utilize available web resources. Web resources are particularly useful for patient education materials which need to be given to a patient immediately when a translation of a UI Hospitals and Clinics document is not already available.

When such a situation arises, you may use the following strategies:

1. Find out if UI Hospitals and Clinics Interpreting and Translation Services have already translated the material in question. You may call Ozzie Diaz-Duque, between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m., at 356-7116.
2. Find out if your outpatient clinic or inpatient unit already has the materials available in translation. You may check with the Nurse Manager or Assistant Nurse Manager.
3. If the material has not already been translated, check the Web Resources list to find an appropriate website which may contain the information in the particular language.
4. You may also use a search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to find available materials. If you have never done a search on the Internet, familiarize yourself with how to best search for items (usually under "search tips").
   • If you are looking, for instance, for general information on diabetes you may search under: diabetes information + Spanish (or any other language).
   • If you are looking for a more specific topic, such as "insulin and diabetes," or "diabetes and nutrition," then use these terms in your search.
   • In addition, most national associations provide patient information in various languages, so you could search under "American Diabetes Association + Spanish".
   • Other agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have a Spanish language version of the entire site.
   • Foreign language terms may be used in the search ("La diabetes," "Informacion sobre diabetes," etc.) and most search engines have a "Language Tool," which can be used to find websites in a particular language.
5. Review the material to make sure that information from the Internet is in accord with UI Hospitals and Clinics materials.
6. Bookmark the website in your local PC for future use. Keep printed copies of items that are used often, and make this information available to all appropriate persons in your unit/department.

Here are examples of some websites that are available to find patient educational materials in Spanish.

• Language Interpretation Resources
• Limited English Proficiency Resources
• Various Language Resource Links