Bilingual nursing opportunities?

[Ann42]

Hi All! Does anybody know if being fluent in another language, specifically Spanish, would make me more valuable as a nurse in some parts of the country? I'm not very fluent in Spanish yet, but I love it and wish to become fluent someday. I'd love to be able to communicate well with Hispanic patients. :)

I did a search online for job opportunities for bilingual RNs and most of the ads were for county health departments and they just said, "bilingual is a plus", but they didn't seem interested in paying anything extra for the "plus". However I found one ad which offered $70,000 for a bilingual nurse, but only one. (I won't graduate for three years, so I guess I'll miss that one.

I thought it would be nice to work at a missionary hospital down in Honduras, but I'd have to save for that. It's basically volunteer work there. It'd be nice to earn enough in the states to save and go on temporary mission trips like that.

I learned some Spanish on my own with my kids. And am planning to take Spanish courses along with nursing courses.

[hogan4736, BSN, RN]

phoenix, san diego, los angeles, and albequerque to name a few

[charissa]

My uncle who lives in columbus ohio mentioned that he was aware that some facilities in that area paid a little extra if you are fluent

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

Hey Ann,

I'm Zach. I'm 25 and just graduated from a nursing program here in Western Washington last week. I plan to take the NCLEX sometime in July which upon passing, will provide me RN status.

That is great that you want to combine Spanish and nursing. I am a huge advocate of multicultural/multilingual nursing. Like another poster mentioned, many places will benefit from your bilingual abilities in the US. In addition to those already mentioned, the Miami area, southern Texas area, and of course any major city (like New York) will like having as many employees that speak Spanish as they can because this can theoretically increase "customer" satisfaction.

Hospitals are not the only place you can use these skills. Public Health clinics and ambulatory care (walk-in) clinics are often accessed by the Latino population and Spanish is a definite benefit there.

While I've heard of places providing extra pay for bilingual capabilities, I don't think it's the norm unfortunately. A lot of places like southern Cali and southern Texas have a lot of nurses already who are bilingual so the need is possibly less there. Other cities where the latino population is smaller, your bilingual abilities will be super appreciated when a Spanish-Speaking client comes in to the healthcare setting with no one speaking Spanish except you.

Mission work is an admirable goal. I too would like to participate in that with a secular group after a few years of gaining experience in the field.

I wish you much success in your endeavors.

Zach