Advantage for Speaking Spanish?

I am fully bilingual English-Spanish and I have a translation certificate. Even being bilingual, having a bachelors degree in another field and graduating next week with a BSN and 4.0 gpa has not landed me one interview and I have applied to every place I can think of. It's a tough market out there, and even I do not consider myself qualified to do medical interpretation. You would need very technical interpretation education to learn medical terms and then be able to explain them in layman's terms to be able to interpret in a hospital setting. Regardless, any type of education that would benefit you in nursing is valuable. Even if it doesn't benefit you in the job market, you will be able to communicate with your patients and they will appreciate any effort that you make.

i wouldn't put yourself out there too far as far as being a bilingual nurse.
i speak english, spanish, italian and am also fluent in american sign language.
my job does not pay me one penny extra for these skills.. but i often get taken away from what i'm doing to help translate for someone... most of the time i don't mind, but once people find out you're bilingual, they call you instead of the translator line because its much easier... the other night i spent 45 minutes on the med/surg floor helping a doctor do a neuro consult.. i don't even work on med/surg!

a friend of mine is an certified interpretor for ASL and makes something along the lines of $70 per hour, but she has a bachelor's degree in it and contracts herself out to facilities since someone has to be present to sign for all public events, etc. so i think the same holds for spanish.. you have to have the education, the native tongue or the immersion.

taking basic spanish is a great idea, but spanish medical terminology is a bit tricky and here in south florida there are soo many different dialects of spanish that sometimes i have trouble understanding the patients, especially those with the more central/south american dialect.

so i would say take the spanish classes, but don't offer yourself as an interpretor.

good luck!!

Multi,

Be careful with self-study materials. You can learn phrases, but without a native-speaking coach, you won't know when to use your handful of expressions. Just because you can parrot a handful of phrases, doesn't guarantee you'll apply them in the correct situations. Language without context is not "communication." It's a tricky business.

It sounds like you're looking for a direct study hours per salary unity compensation. As cited by others above, that won't happen unless you're very fluent. However, if you took time to study a few semesters, you could be of great help in the absence of any bilingual staff--kind of filling in till the reinforcements arrived. And it would also make you more sensitive to the difficulty which non-natives go through in their everyday lives. Again, no direct compensation for that, but "quality of life" isn't always about money, is it?

One interesting benefit about being bilingual: Stroke patients come back with more cognitive functioning if they are bilingual because they have developed multiple neurological pathways. That's an interesting type of "health insurance"!

When I worked in Southern California speaking ANY Spanish was a bonus! It takes so long to be fluent in any language. I've had 6 years of French and no way am I fluent, but some people picked up languages easier than others.

Were you looking to become an interpreter? That would take way too much work as you realize. But, having graduated from Univ. of AZ in Tucson (30 years ago...), and working @ Maricopa County Hospital, I sure wish I had had some Spanish. It really would have helped!

Best of luck as you start out in your career as a nurse!

[quote=tntrn;3604880]Just a word of caution about the term "bilingual."
Just because you speak some Spanish, maybe even for years, doesn't make you bilingual.

There is a great need for Spanish Speaking nurses and Spanish speaking every job here in San Antonio, Texas. Here you might have more experience and education vs your competition - but if you don't speak Spanish they will hire the person that does.

While there may not be a financial or hiring advantage to speaking spanish, I can guarantee you that any Spanish you can speak at all will help you provide better nursing care to your patients and their families. I tell nursing students all the time, I truly believe that at least one Spanish class should be a pre-requisite for nursing school (as there is a very large spanish speaking population in our community). I've worked in pediatrics at multiple hospitals, and can tell you that I have at least one spanish-speaking-only family nearly every single shift I work.

Most of what you need to know for basic communication can be learned in the first few semesters of spanish classes at any college- that's where I learned these things. But the key is to practice them and apply them once you have learned them. The basics really go a long way: "Are you in pain? Where?" "Is your pain better or worse?" "Are you hungry?" "Do you need to use the bathroom?" "How much did you have to drink?" "This medicine is an atibiotic for your infection." "Call me if you need anything, or if your pain gets worse." Now I can even do VERY basic teaching on things that we do all the time, such as , "I know the baby is hungry, but if she tries to feed right now while she is breathing too fast, the formula will go into her lungs instead of her stomach, because she does not have time to swallow between breaths. We will give her medicine to help her breathing, and let her feed as soon as she is breathing slow enough that it is safe."

I STRONGLY encourage you to take as much spanish as you can while you are in nursing school. Once you graduate, you will be working on all different days of the week, no two weeks will be the same, and you will have a difficult time committing to a spanish class. This is your time to learn it. The patient's bill of rights guarantees patients the right to care in their own language, no matter what that is- this is why hospitals have the language lines. But the language lines are very time consuming- you will save yourself a lot of time in the future if you learn Spanish now.
Good luck to you!

Take my advice ..advantage for who? Unless you are being paid Xtra..speak English. You will be bothered to come translate when you have your own work to do. And in reality your work, your license, your job.

Always a good idea to speak more than one language.....specially Spanish ,since you will be dealing w/ only Spanish speaking people in community health, like California. This is a large population that speaks this language, and care managing will be so easy if you do not need an interpreter. It is a big advantage to you or to any nurse!

I know it has helped me a lot in the day-to-day to be able to speak some basic Spanish with families... and I don't live in a part of the country, like you do, that is thought to have a high population of Spanish-speaking families, but it seems like there are many and getting to be more every day. It's just nice not to have to call the language line for everything and be able to communicate basic things with families more easily. I still do use the interpreters for in-depth teaching or anything, of course; I don't want to risk messing that up.

I would think in your part of the country, knowing some Spanish would be a definite advantage, if not when you get hired, then later on when you are working. I agree with starting the at-home Spanish courses- I've heard the Rosetta Stone program is good though I've never used it, and also I recommend the "501 Spanish Verbs" book, it has lots of good info. If once you get into it, you find you want more interactive instruction you can always take the classes then. GOOD LUCK!! :-)