Originally Posted by asoldierswife05
I live in the south where we have a large spanish speaking population. They offer spanish here in the highschools and at my college, but not necessarily 'spanish for medical professionals' . I really want to learn it in the context that I can use in the hospital setting with my patients. Can anyone recommend an online course or any books or tapes (preferably) that they are/have used that will help me?

I learned my Spanish from a police CD. Seriously, it's great. It's an interactive CD that teaches you the alphabet, numbers, common words, numbers, cultural issues, etc.
I can ask someone where their pain is OR I can tell them to put their hands on the wall and spread their feet.
The CD is written by the US Gov't, it used to be free (was when I got it) but now they charge $30.00 for it. If I can figure out how, I'm happy to make a copy for you. It says on the CD that I can do that. I just need to figure out how. I've had this computer for a year and never yet burned a CD.
Or, you can go to any community college, they have Medical Spanish classes. But, I like my CD better.
However... I did make a mistake once. I was the only Spanish speaking nurse and we needed to call a patient at his home (just discharged) and explain that an AHCCCS (Az's version of Medicaid) nurse would be at his home at 6pm to teach him to care for his PICC.
The housekeeper was standing behind me patting my shoulder furiously telling me NONONO!!! I knew my words were correct, or I thought they were, but I also trusted this gal enough that she wouldn't stop me in the middle of a phone call unless something was wrong.
Wellllll, it appears that there are various ways of saying something similar. Turns out I told him that his breast feeder would be there at 6PM. You know, nurse vs. nursing as in nursing a baby? Yeah, I told him his breast feeder would be there at 6PM. Thankfully, he didn't laugh at me, well, at least not until he hung up the phone.
Quite frankly, I was waiting for the breast feeder to call me and scream but she never did.