Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Berk Ş. (Yürütücü), Akdeniz N.
Erasmus Projesi, 2014 - 2016
The aim of the VOCAL-Medical project is to transfer innovation from Leonardo da Vinci TOI project VOCAL (2007-2009) and other relevant EU projects of the LLP 2007-2013 in relation to language learning in vocational contexts to a new vocational area, namely the medical sector. It targets professionals in the medical sector who need to communicate with patients who are non-nationals in emergency situations where good communication skills can literally mean the difference between life and death. In doing so it responds to an increasing need to overcome language and intercultural barriers in the medical sector as a result of demographic changes and increased mobility.
The project aims to provide language and culture training materials contextualized for the medical sector, through cooperation between educational institutions and professionals working in this sector. Its target audience is specifically:
-in hospital emergency services
- ambulance service and fast rescue teams
- GP's on standby/call duty (especially in urban areas)
- doctors/specialists within the hospital examining and diagnosing emergency patients.
It will create online modules in 9 languages as well as an associated intercultural module, using the format developed in the original VOCAL project. These will be made available not only on a website, as in the previous project, but via mobile phone applications. The language modules will be developed bilingually (in English and another language) and will cover topics related to Ambulance and
Emergency services and intercultural aspects of this.
The partnership draws on the skills of professionals in the medical and language training sectors, as well as experts in intercultural training and IT as well as a quality manager who is a native English speaker. It involves former partners from the Vocal project who are familiar with the structure and methodology that were successfully applied in order to create www.vocalproject.eu.
Project partners undertook research on needs within their own country for this project application and have submitted needs analyses. They have established links with institutions in the medical sector (see Letters of Support) who will act as a sounding board for the duration of the project and undertake testing/piloting of the modules.
The main result of the project will be a contextualized language application for hospital/emergency staff available for both personal computers and mobile devices (it will work on widely available smart phones supporting HTML5 functionalities).
The project will contribute to bridging the gap between different healthcare systems and different cultural behaviors inherent in the doctor-patient relationship. This has benefits for the healthcare systems themselves, for the professionals who work in them and for patients who are already in the country or may travel there in future as migrant workers, tourists or students. Better doctor-patient communication means better treatment.