Switching Health Roles

It was a health care role reversal yesterday at a Rochester hospital. Some 100 first-year medical students switched roles with members of the deaf community who played health providers. The program is designed to teach the students what its like for the deaf and hard-of-hearing to seek medical attention. They learned first hand how difficult medical care can become as a patient without adequate communication. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry says its the only exercise like this in the country and Deaf Strong Hospital has been doing it for more than a decade. Students are given cards with symptoms listed and are told they cannot talk.