Does anyone know Spanish?

ScrappytheCoco · Dec 15, 2015

I know very few phrases I have picked up after a few years in the ED, (tienes dolor?) :) But the staff members who speak fluent Spanish are invaluable. Yes, a medical interpreter should be used but having someone who can at least communicate and get a general idea of what's going on with the patient is extremely helpful in the mean time. Learning Spanish will be 100% positive for you in my opinion.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Dec 15, 2015

Most collegiate Spanish courses are not conversational. You want to seek out conversational Spanish, medical Spanish or practical Spanish for healthcare workers. Most college classes are basic grammar, vocabulary, etc

Zyprexa_Ho · Dec 15, 2015

Taking Spanish for 3-4 years even didn't make me a onversationalist, but I can understand it pretty well. If you know the mechanics you can look up words or phrases online and porifice some stuff together and not sound like an idiot.

Honestly, learning a second language helps you understand English, too. A noun, verb, adjective, etc. are the same entities in each language.

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Dec 15, 2015

No habla espanol. A menos que quiero.

willowita, ADN, RN · Dec 15, 2015

I'm a native speaker in California so it's definitely a plus for me. Picking up conversational and medical Spanish is a good idea if you live in area with a population of Latinos. It definitely can't hurt.

A&Ox6, MSN, RN · Dec 15, 2015

Try to find a class in Spanish for health professionals. I took such a course, and we wasted less time on word lists and more on communication. For our final, we each had to create an assessment script for our area of expertise.

Also, if you take an online course, make sure that there is a mechanism for practicing conversation and pronunciation. Our program required that we record assignments written and verbally. We were critique don pronunciation. We also had ongoing Voice Threads that required us to work on dialogues. This has also really improved my ability to communicate on the phone in Spanish when I cannot see the individual.

Also, please be aware that taking such a course doesn't necessarily preclude the need for interpreter services. Especially from a legal perspective.

mindofmidwifery, ADN · Dec 16, 2015

Most collegiate Spanish courses are not conversational. You want to seek out conversational Spanish, medical Spanish or practical Spanish for healthcare workers. Most college classes are basic grammar, vocabulary, etc

I was looking at what my college offered and if I get to level 5, it becomes conversational. Do you think it'd be worth it to go through the 4 levels before getting to conversational?

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Dec 16, 2015

Look in the community & continuing education division for Spanish for healthcare professionals.

5 semesters of Spanish is a lot, but I'm of the opinion that no education is a waste.

dragonflylilly · Dec 16, 2015

I know Spanish and it has helped me so much! It really comes in handy when communicating with patients and their families. I would suggest classes but also lots and lots of practice, it really does help to commit the new language to memory.

Nurse Leigh · Dec 16, 2015

Most collegiate Spanish courses are not conversational. You want to seek out conversational Spanish, medical Spanish or practical Spanish for healthcare workers. Most college classes are basic grammar, vocabulary, etc

I think some community classes/ parks and rec classes might offer these.

Also, I found an app from MAVRO, Medical Spanish. It was free but now I think it is for pay only. I've never used it in practice but I like the idea of it - it is setup for body systems, symptoms, intros and assessments. Let me see if I can add some screenshots...

Nurse Leigh · Dec 16, 2015

Also (and all this depends on facility policy of using smartphones) my android phone has Google translate on it - it is pretty awesome and will even translate sign and stuff.

Of course a certified translator or phone translation service may be better in a lot of scenarios