Diversity.. at what price?

Nurses Relations

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I am working in a large inner city facility. Corporate expounds the benefits of a diverse working culture.

I understand the benefits of a large pool of talent. There is every nationality on Earth represented in this medical center.

Recently, I took report from the recovery room. The nurse had such a thick accent , I had to ask her to spell some of the words she was saying. During the shift, I "worked" with a resident that was also very difficult to understand. He is also from a culture that expects women to walk 3 feet behind them. Needless to say.. the communication was difficult and time consuming.

At the end of the shift, I gave report to a nurse from another culture, that had never heard of the procedure the patient had undergone. Another language barrier ensued as I tried to explain the case.

I find it interesting that they can understand my mid-west American accent, but not vice-versa. The communication effort is time taking away from patient care.

I have seen a Chinese nurse, trying to describe a (emergent) patient's condition, over the phone to an Indian doctor, with a nursing assistant yelling in the background trying to interpret for them.

Is there a solution?:uhoh3:

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
it is time to adapt the new world now, for you too, as a nurse, as you konw the impact of diversity of culture and nationality, please remember, if other RN or MD can speak American language with accent that means you need to be able to speak at least 2 different languages, be strong and be a winner, donot be a looser and sob in your frustrations.:uhoh3::yawn::eek::)

No, it doesn't. :nono::grn::no::zzzzz

Specializes in none.
No, it doesn't. :nono::grn::no::zzzzz

If it's The New World Order, then let's all learn Chinese, they are going to own the New World pretty soon away.:cool:

Specializes in Infectious Disease, Neuro, Research.
It is time to adapt the new world now, for you too, as a nurse, as you konw the impact of diversity of culture and nationality. Please remember, if other RNs or MDs can speak the American language with an accent, that means you need to be able to speak at least 2 different languages, be strong and be a winner, do (space)not be a loser and sob in your frustration.:uhoh3::yawn::eek::)

ygv101, not picking on you, but if communication, in relation to medical treatment or instruction is unintelligible, it is not only useless, it is dangerous. The world has not changed. Only the acceptance of sub-standard performance is new. Ask British and Indian (Continental) physcians and nurses who were practicing in the 50s, veterans of the Rhodesian civil war, or former French Legionnaires.

This is ignoring the logical fallacy of a requisite based upon an incidental variable.

Don't mean to upset nursing professionals, half of my families work in hospital as medical doctors or nurses, I truly respect every medical professional in this world. I just want to be realistic, If language profeciency is the dominate factor in medical diagosis, procedures and treatment, then the medical industries would not hire professionals who are not considered proficient in American language. I happen to know that half of M.D. working in John Hopkin Hospitals speak with accents, if language is a primary concern and can affect the quality of work, than John Hopkin would not hire them. There are reasons for hospital industry to use medical and nursing professional from different cultural background. I have a nursing background and also an bioengineer, I can see the trend of health care is to replace nursing work with technology, you are right, it does not matter how many language or what languages we are capable to speak, it would never be enough to accommodate the need in health care field. many hospitals begin to use robotic system to deliver and check medication treatment, computerized translators are also installed in patient's rooms to assist in communications, right now robot nurses are put in trial stage in hospitals in Japan, computerized medical system are heavily designed, utilized and implemented to meet the weakness of health care field. I do like to point out, at this time, that health care professionals should be alert with a demand on nurses to learn more about technology in the near future.

I happen to know that half of M.D. working in John Hopkin Hospitals speak with accents, if language is a primary concern and can affect the quality of work, than John Hopkin would not hire them.

There is a big difference between having an accent and having an accent so thick that the message can't be understood. If there are problems with usage and fluency in addition to the accent, communication is in jeopardy and so are the patients and the staff.

Technology is great and should do much to help reduce errors, but you will never replace human beings entirely, nor do I think most of us want that.

I just wish there were some parity between the expectations of immigrants who want to work in other countries and the expectations in the US.

Ithink that it is best for you to seek employment where you dont have to worry about dealing with accents . Your patients deserve a nurse who is open minded, and non judgemental.

My patients have most certainly found that from me.

I have worked in many areas and many states and make it a POINT to assure that they can understand me.

It is the very fact that I am open minded and non-judgemental that I started this thread.

It is with a true concern that communication is the key to patient care. All patients deserve a care giver that understands them... and vice-versa.

I cannot begin to understand how that concern can be construed by you as making judgement towards an un-intelligible accent.:confused:

Well, I hope I'm not getting off track here, but here is a patient perspective: In the rural area I live in, many of the doctors have been educated in other countries. They come to us for a few years and then move on. Sometimes we're lucky enough to have a few that settle down for good. Some of them have very very heavy accents. I'm alert and I listen carefully, but it's very hard sometimes to know what they are saying. One of my doctors told me, "You are having PBBs". I said "PBBs?" "Yes", he said. So I thought about it a while, and realized he could only be saying PVCs. I think it must be very hard for older people and those who don't hear well. It's painful for me sometimes, trying so hard to listen.

I have no solution, although it would not hurt for everyone to be reminded to speak slowly, to avoid mumbling, and to face the person they are speaking to, if possible.

Specializes in here and there.
I worked in England at a time when we had many Finnish and Swedish nurses coming over to work. We traditionally always already had many African and West Indian nurses. I never had any problems communicating with them. Some people said they did. Some perhaps genuinely had a problem, however I found very often found that those who did were either very impatient, intolerant types, or in some cases actually exaggerated the problem because they liked telling "shock, horror" anecdotes, or even worse, they simply liked laughing at foreigners.

I wonder if any of the critics have actually ever had the boot on the other foot? I came to work in France with a reasonable knowledge of French but spoke with a heavy British accent. I didn't nurse here until I was confident in my fluency, but those first months in a strange system and a foreign language are scary. I have found most French colleagues overwhelmingly helpful and accomodating. In those early days if I mispronounced something they only had to politely ask me to repeat myself, I'd repeat it slowly and carefully and they'd usually understand. However, the rare occasions people snapped or mocked really hurt. After ten years here it's fine, but still occasionally if I'm tired - giving handover at the end of a 12 hour night shift - yes, some words escape me or I speak some Franglais. It is very rare that I'm given a hard time about it but it can still give you complex. I've got all the slang and the idioms now - but that doesn't come quickly and NO language course ever gives you that.

Hence I will now go out of my way to be patient and helpful to newcomers with levels of French inferior to mine. We had an influx of Spanish nurses a few years back - some people complained about the way they spoke French but most of us understood them fine. And yes, if I had an anglophone colleague of course we'd speak our own language at coffee break - only natural.

If you're frustrated by a colleague's accent or style of expression, they're twice as frustrated as you. Give them a break. No nurse sets out to be incomprehensible.

Bravo!!!!!!!!

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
My patients have most certainly found that from me.

I have worked in many areas and many states and make it a POINT to assure that they can understand me.

It is the very fact that I am open minded and non-judgemental that I started this thread.

It is with a true concern that communication is the key to patient care. All patients deserve a care giver that understands them... and vice-versa.

I cannot begin to understand how that concern can be construed by you as making judgement towards an un-intelligible accent.:confused:

It's a false argument with the message that if you were just as tolerant, non-judgemental, open minded and inclusive as they are, you will be able to understand a heavy accent. In other words they are asserting their superior character, and no amount of explaining seems to sway them at all.

Specializes in none.

This thread is getting silly. Every one speaks with some kind of accent. if I don't understand some one I ask them to repeat. But I have an out- I wear hearing aids.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
the examples you cite are exceptions to the rule.

foreign physicians are required to pass stringent tests that measure their ability to comprehend and communicate in english.

my advice to you is patience. learn to listen without bias. you may find that communication carries on without much hassle.

begging your pardon, but i must work in the same place as the op. the examples cited are not exceptions to the rule. foreign nurses and physicians may read and write english without difficulty but speaking and being understood in english not so much. add to that cultural differences such as the physician who believes females should not look him in the face and the one who demands that females "do not question" him . . . i understand her pain. clearly you do not.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i stand behind my couch posting (yes pun intended)

and it is shameful to spout hateful rhetoric regarding people just because they are not like you.

take my post whichever way you will....

p.s newbie and darn proud of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

granted, i've only made it as far as this post, but i haven't seen any "hateful rhetoric" being spouted, although this post is pretty offensive.

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