[deehaverrn]

interestingly people of italian background used to be considered latino..but we seem to have been ousted! guess that's because our grandparents and parents had to learn english, so even though much of our culture is very similar to those of spanish descent no one needs any cultural competency classes to interact with us..nor do we merit any special treatment. thats my pet peeve..many of our hispanic pts. have learned how to use the system and expect special treatment.
also, i was turned off to the 'language line' a couple years ago when a korean couple requested i use it for my admission database. )i was admitting the woman for induction of labor. after over an hour with the interpreter helping with all my questions and teaching we concluded our session. i was entering everything in the computer as we went. i left the room and the husband (who was a graduate student at a local well known university) called me back in (his english was garbled but okay) and requested (again i had no problem understanding him) that i start over because they didnt like the regional dialect that the interpreter had used...i realize that this may have been a cultural issue that they didn't want to offend the translator (who was male) but one question that was asked at the beginning was whether the translator was acceptable..plus it costs the hospital money which for some reason is not billed to the pts..plus this meant that i had to invalidate all my charting and teaching, and take another hour to redo it! I had to leave the room to calm down before i could proceed.
i don't think i've used the language line since..