communicating with patient dilemna with native tongue

[mariarose]

I am a nursing student who plans to work in a hospital near my family. I am a Korean American who is from Korean descent. The area my family lives in has a large korean population

My concern is that if I work in a hospital where my family lives in, the chances of me having a korean patient is high. I worry that my Korean is not advanced enough to fully understand the patients symptoms or prescriptions (ex. naming body parts, any medications in korean). I only know basic korean.

In nursing school, I'm learning all of the med terms and anatomy in English.

Would this be of any concern in the future?

[caliotter3]

If you are unsure of your language abilities on the job, utilize the hospital translation services. You do not want to be in the middle of any misunderstandings.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Hospitals are required to provide qualified language interpreters. This can be either people working at the facility or through a phone service such as Cyraphone. It is not a requirement for each nurse to be able to speak the language of the patient. If you do, great. If not, that's okay too. I could stumble through a conversation in Spanish, but if it were to come to medical terms and consent, I am definitely not qualified and will utilize the certified interpreters if available and Cyraphone if they are not. In fact, I would be putting my job in jeopardy if I attempted to do so as I am not qualified per my facility's policy requiring a test to prove fluency with medical terms and appropriate actions when interpreting.

It's also unrealistic to expect nurses to be able to translate every language for each patient that came in the doors.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Problem is if you put yourself forth as fluent in Korean & medical Korean or worse imply that you are qualified as an interpreter. Be forthcoming with your limitations and you will be fine

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Don't worry. :) As an RN practicing in the US, you would not be expected to know any Korean. As other posters have said, hospitals are required to provide a certified medical translator to any pt whose native tongue is not English. And actually even if your conversational Korean was good--or fluent--you would not be allowed to attempt a healthcare discussion with a non-English-speaking Korean pt, because you are not a certified medical interpreter.

[JoseQuinones]

On my first day of rotation at the VA, my professor put me to a patient who spoke only Korean and broken English (my first language is Spanish). "Sink or swim," she said. We swam beautifully.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Don't worry, you will not be expected to be fluent in medical terms. As others have mentioned there should be a translator available for this. The ability to converse in a patients native language, even if not fluently, will probably be very helpful. After all, not all of your conversations with patients require understanding medical terms. If you are confronted with this in your career it will be nice to be able to answer a basic question such as a request for help to the bathroom or a glass of water without needing a translator.

[AuDDoc]

Unless you are fluent and have the credentials to back it up, then use the hospital's interpreting staff. That's what they get paid for.