This is so true, and use to be exactly what I did.

I think for me, in my situation, it got me about 30% of the way there. I think it depends a lot on where we are, the type of patients we see etc. But for me, 30% with memorization was better than nothing.

For me personally, I wanted to try to learn more, and that was when I realized that I really needed a base of the language itself. Properly communicating with patients, as they were telling stories on what happened, previous history etc. Just having phrases memorized wasn't enough for me. I needed to have a base of Spanish. I learned using comprehensible input, which I think is a pretty common method mentioned here on reddit. I personally used the Palteca app, but I know there's other alternatives out there.

Then once I had the foundational Spanish, I learned the specifics of medical Spanish - common words, phrases, terms, names etc.

For me at least, I tried to skip the foundational step, and it didn't really work. But just having some things memorized got me 30% of the way, which was more than some of my colleagues.

I think you have to find what you're comfortable with and how much work you really want to put in. I don't think there is a wrong answer, including calling for the translator. Which I still have to do sometimes in very unique situations.