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Background: International medical graduates (IMGs) can either select to take a proficiency test to become licensed to practice in Sweden or to take a 1-2-year complimentary medical education (CME) to qualify for internship. Both paths test the participant for proficiency according to the national Swedish standards for becoming a licensed physician and are given in Swedish. The national standards include medical knowledge, interprofessional skills, communication with patient, relatives and other personnel, and scientific scholarship. A prerequisite for the CME is a passing grade in a Swedish language level 3 course at an accredited adult education center. A recurring observation was that both those failing the proficiency test for IMGs and those taking previous CME was lacking in Swedish proficiency.

Summary of Work: A programmatic approach was taken to implement systematic training in Swedish applied in medicine at this two-year CME that is mainly based on distance training using videoconference systems. During the first year the language training corresponds to 50% of the curriculum. Research questions: Did the students at the new CME perceive the education in Swedish as valuable and did the students pass the examinations? Design: Cross-sectional study based on the course evaluations and the results of the examinations from the first semester.

Summary of Results: 28 students were admitted to the program and 22 remained with the course for the finals of the first semester. The majority had increased their proficiency in Swedish as measured in vocabulary and correct use of words, but the grammar had not improved. Half of the students failed the summative assessment and three of the students also failed the majority of the formative assessments. The participants scored the relevance and the value of the Swedish training as high.

Discussion and Conclusions: The students appreciate the training in Swedish while also having difficulties to pass the tests. A more comprehensive study is warranted to study how to best deliver language training to IMGs.

Take-home Messages: Medical education for IMGs needs to take language proficiency into account.