The Executive Suite: Learning a new language can benefit a physician’s practice

Are you looking for new ways that your physician’s practice can innovate to attract new patients? Do you also want to make a change that will help you be the best healthcare practitioner you can be? Sure, sprucing up the waiting room with comfy new décor is one way to make appointments more enjoyable for patients, but why not advance your practice in a manner that will bring even more success in 2021 and beyond? One surefire strategy that will help you achieve this goal is learning a new language.

Here is how mastering a foreign language can benefit your practice and you, yourself, as a physician:

Reach and attract a whole new market of potential patients

Do a lot of folk who speak a certain language live in the area your practice is located in? Many of them may be looking for healthcare practitioners who are fluent in their language, so that they can more easily discuss their health needs and get the best care possible. Thus, mastering their language will be a major selling point when they are in the process of selecting a physician to see for general checkups and health ailments.

You can promote that you are fluent in their language in your bio on the practice’s website, which may be the distinguishing factor that makes them decide to choose you over another practitioner. Once you start working with individuals who speak the language you are now fluent in, they may also refer you to their friends and family. This organic word-of-mouth marketing can result in an influx of even more new patients for you! Therefore, learning the new language can help your practice outshine competitors.

Be the best healthcare practitioner you can be

Don’t you want to do whatever you can to provide the greatest care possible for your patients? We all know that education and continually challenging yourself are key for personal growth and improvement, so learning a new language can be vital in helping you become the best physician you can be. Here is how:

It physically changes your brain for the better

Our brain has the ability to constantly change due to environmental impacts, thoughts, emotions, or brain exercise through learning. Moreover, learning a new language greatly affects brain plasticity; it changes the brain by building many new neural pathways and connections that form white and gray brain matter. The changes in the brain that learning a new language brings have been studied for years. It has been confirmed that by becoming fluent in one or more new languages, the brain develops seriously enhanced cognitive abilities, multitasking abilities, and improved memory. All of these improvements can help you better care for your patients.

It will give you a morale boost in today’s pandemic era

Let’s face it—this past year has been extremely overwhelming for many healthcare practitioners due to the devastating (and ongoing) coronavirus pandemic. If you have been feeling depressed because of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s pertinent to engage in activities that will give you a much-needed positivity boost. Amplifying your morale can help you stay motivated and uplifted while you’re helping patients at your practice. For those of you who have been feeling sad or hopeless after this incredibly challenging year, mastering a new language is a logical, holistic, and natural approach to easing symptoms of depression.

Prolonged periods of stress and worries (such as those felt throughout this pandemic) decrease the levels of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins, which ultimately results in negative emotions that induce and amplify symptoms of depression. However, achieving something so great as becoming fluent in a foreign language will make you feel happy and satisfied with the accomplishment. These feelings of self-appreciation and contentment will help make you happier and physically impact your mental state. Through learning a new language, you are also opening a door to meeting new people and widening your horizons, which can help spark new ideas for your practice.