I am a nurse student, 1st semester.. And, I have an eastern european accent.. The other day one of the "classmates" made a remark about my accent..and it was an eye opener!! I started looking in to it.. And realised that I will probably never have a career.. That clear communication is the key, safety issue if you will.. And people do not like dealing with accents, especially if they are in a volnurable situation! Will I be better off doing something else? Rather than just killing 4 years at school and then realising that not a lot of people are willing to deal with me? Any thoughts?
I would appreciate your honesty, no matter how harsh it is..
I work in a very diverse medical center. I love hearing accents different than mine! My workplace offers accent reduction classes with a speech therapist for employees who feel a heavy accent hinders their professional growth.
Do not give up on being a nurse because of your accent! It's what makes you--you!
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Yes, thank you for support. But if to look at it from the patient's(family) perspective(and to be honest), the last thing I would probably want to deal with (when I hurt) is somebody's accent.. Client satisfaction rate drops... Hospitals are not happy..
Some people are ignorant and believe people with accents aren't knowledgable. Where I live in CA, there are many different accents among my various colleagues, physicians, classmates and instructors. I'm sorry that someone felt the need to bring up your accent. Please don't let it get you down!
Sun0408, ASN, RN
1,761 Posts
That was my main point. We all have some sort of accent, that doesn't mean the OP should quit nursing because of it. Hospitals are diverse😊