Cultural conflicts between American born and Filipino nurses

The only thing I have noticed is that it is very annoying and quite rude in my opinion if you are only person who does not speak their language sitting at the table and they have a conversation you can not understand.

Perhaps you should clarify if you are speaking about American-born Filipino nurses or Filipino nurses who were born in the Phillippines, the other group being compared, American nurses born in America.

as a filipino RN, i understand the frustration. it's just sometimes, speaking another language takes a lot of effort. besides, more often than not they're not talking about you anyway.

I've never had any cultural conflicts with the Filipinas in my unit. I think they were all born in the Phillipines. I've enjoyed trying different foods at our group potlucks. (I even got to try the duck egg. I ate two! Yes, that one!:wink2

Nursing is not about enjoying other country foods or being in love with a person from another country it is about delivering competent, safe care to patients. I have worked with absolutely marvelous nurses from other countries who have brought a great deal to the care of patients. But I have to say that the language "not a barrier" as they are all required to pass english nursing exams (at least here they are) is a great hurdle. Events like happened recently haunt my nightmares. In the emergency room of the facility were two groups of nurses. On one side of the patient were nurses conversing in Mexican, one the other side were nurses conversing in Tagalog. Neither was paying any attention to each other, to the patient, or what was going on. The poor patient was laying there yelling, "Doesn't ANYONE speaks English". Cultural differences aside, this event was not the first time that I have encountered such behaviour. Since two differing sets of IV's were being started, (until I intervened), danger and peril to the patient was secondary to speaking an easy to speak language. Accents can be difficult to understand at first but one of the best nurses I ever worked with had a VERY strong Vietamese accent, but within two weeks of working with her she was very understandable.

My understanding from your comment is that it is acceptable to be rude to your co-workers simply because you are not talking about them.
And, as all of our teachers and parents have said, all of our lives -- The more you practice something the easier it becomes.

FYI, peoples of Hispanic decent including many Mexicans speak SPANISH, not "MEXICAN"! There is no such language as far as I know.

Thank you I about had a fit! Ignorance is ignorance not bliss.

Wow you are a little snippy aren't you? Do you actually speak any other languages fluently? Have you spent any time working full-time in a language other than your native language? It is extremely hard and very tiring.

Why precisely is this scenario so rude to you? I imagine you felt excluded. Did you attempt to start a conversation with these fellow workers? If you did not then you need to start looking after your own needs -- you know -- use your words. People are not psychic and do not know how you feel.