Double Major with Nursing / Nursing with Spanish Minor?

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Hello, I'm a High school junior who wants to do nursing in College. I have been reading that having another bachelors like Spanish/minor can increase your chances of being hired/higher raise? Now the question is would I be better of getting a minor or another Bachelors in Spanish? I have taken AP Spanish Language in HS which means I would start off with 14/17 credits depending the school I choose, and for a minor I would need to have 9/15 more credits depending on the school & for a bachelors it would be 29/24 more credits depending on the school.

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Hello, I'm a High school junior who wants to do nursing in College. I have been reading that having another bachelors like Spanish/minor can increase your chances of being hired/higher raise? Now the question is would I be better of getting a minor or another Bachelors in Spanish? I have taken AP Spanish Language in HS which means I would start off with 14/17 credits depending the school I choose, and for a minor I would need to have 9/15 more credits depending on the school & for a bachelors it would be 29/24 more credits depending on the school.

I haven't heard of speaking Spanish resulting in higher wages. I suppose a second language could make you a more attractive candidate for a job, but on the other hand, places with high populations of Spanish speaking patients tend to naturally have high populations of Spanish speaking nurses. So you might be special, but not that special, if that makes sense.

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Interesting,I was just wondering if the need for a minor is needed to prove your fluent in another language?And to increase competitiveness

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Interesting,I was just wondering if the need for a minor is needed to prove your fluent in another language?And to increase competitiveness

I haven't observed that it makes much of a difference. I'm from south Texas and live in Southern California now. There were many Spanish speaking nurses in Texas and people in California speak all kinds of languages, some of which I'd never even heard of until I moved here. It's s plus, but not something I'd spend extra time or money on without a very specific goal in mind.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Interesting,I was just wondering if the need for a minor is needed to prove your fluent in another language?And to increase competitiveness

Even if you were to minor in Spanish, that likely won't make you fluent and definitely isn't going to concentrate on healthcare Spanish. I minored in Spanish and I am definitely far from fluent and certainly not qualified to translate. Can I have a basic conversation related to do you have pain and other common phrases? Sure. But a patient history or patient teaching? Absolutely not.

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Im in San Antonio, and just interested to know if it mattered with the huge spanish population here

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I'am fluent in Spanish, but now that I think about it your probably right since they dont teach Spanish medical terminology.

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Specializes in Varied.

There have been a handful of job postings I've seen where being bilingual was a preference or requirement for nurses. Public health clinics may need that more than the hospital. Most organizations have invested in translating services and don't need their nurses to do it as well.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
I'am fluent in Spanish, but now that I think about it your probably right since they dont teach Spanish medical terminology.

If you are fluent in Spanish now and want tot use it for work, then I would recommend looking to classes specifically for medical Spanish, and/or getting a medical interpreter's certificate rather than majoring/minoring in Spanish in college.

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Would that look better than a minor in Spanish?

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I looked it up at a local college here and this is what it says.

HEALTH CARE SPANISH

Designed to help in the development of practical

Spanish communication skills for the health care

employee. Topics covered will include medical

terminology, greetings, common expressions,

commands, and phrases normally used within a

hospital or a physician's office. This course is open

to healthcare employees and nursing students.

(24 hours).

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Specializes in MICU RN.

Definitely no chance for a raise.. but it might make you more appealing and sound more interesting/more likely to get an interview. Perhaps certain urban centers with large immigrant populations speaking those languages may be more inclined to hire you if you truly are fluent, but if only a slightly proficient (minor) level language proficiency I'm not sure how much of an edge the degree would get you. That being said, I think language study is incredible and I have studied plenty and it has enriched my life so much, so would encourage it!!

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