Foreign nurses who can't speak English well

Nurses General Nursing

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I work at a hospital where a number of Indian and Spanish speaking nurses speak broken English, at best. Sometimes I wonder if they understand everything I am saying to them. Also ran into a Vietnamese nurse who everyone was giving a hard time to on her orientation because her English was so bad. The Spanish and Vietnamese nurse were brought to the States by the hospital. The Vietnamese nurse could read written english well, but had difficulty speaking. The Spanish speaking nurses seem to have trouble with passing the NCLEX. I wonder if recruiters evaluate the nurses command of English. I can understand them and am patient, but a number of my colleagues are impatient with them. I feel sorry for them.:confused:

janfrn, I didn't know that about Quebec. I was going to visit friends there. Maybe I'll fly and have them do all the driving since my French would wind us up in the Arctic somewhere.

Just another example of warm body syndrome...and these nurses who are recruited by work permit from foreign countries are unlikely to rock the boat...the'perfect nurse'.

Recently I ventured into teaching at a school who accepted many sponsored foreign students. There was a big problem of buying and selling exams and tests...itwas a regular business that the school was fighting constantly. Wonder if this goes on here too? It amazes me how conversational/ comprehension English is sooo poor in many, but they can pass all the tests...hmmm.

About a year ago I was head hunted for a senior position with a company that shall remain unnamed, active in the business of procuring RNs from other countries to work in the USA. I didn't feel comfortable with the company's work base at that time and I still do not.

Incidentally, fifteen years ago, as an experienced RN in the UK, with double registration and working as a UK faculty member, I was not only expected to take NCLEX, but also Test of English as a Foreign Language. That still rankles.

I work w/ mostly Filipinos, Nigerians, and Ghananians(?). Most are wonderful, warm, funny and good nurses. I like to learn of the cultural differences etc. What I wonder about are the foreign borns who have been here for 15-20 years and still have no command of English. Huh? I don't know why this suprises me, 'cause we have Serbian and Polish housekeepers who are in their late 50's and barely speak English. It must be very hard for them out in our English only world. I do think though, that if you are going to settle in a foreign country, that you should learn the predominant language....I would if the tables were turned.:)

Well i am a foreign born nursing student.I can read write and understand english very well, but i have a difficulty on speaking and it doesn't effect my studies.

i am doing better than other students in my class who are native English speakers:).STUDYING IN A COLLEGE WITH DIFFERENT LANGUAGE THAN YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE EVEN MAKES YOU SMARTER

feels so nice when you get better grades from other students.

I would think that the burden and responsibility to speak and understand the primary language(s) of the community would lie equally with the nurse *and* the hospital that has hired him/her. Particularly if a hospital recruits non-natives heavily, they should bear some responsibility to help their nurses improve their medical and conversational language skills, when necessary.

I have nothing against foreign born nurses, and as one PP, I think it is difficult for some of them to get any solid practice outside their work environment. I had a couple of grandparents from Germany, lived in a German immigrant community, and never really did learn to speak English well. Until their death, family get-togethers were conducted in some weird hybrid "Dinglish", as we called it. When I started to study proper German, I realized that half the German that I knew was totally incorrect, the only people who could comprehend it were my family and close neighbors. If it's difficult for a handful of old Germans in the midwest to get good English practice, I can only imagine the difficulties facing nurses who live in bigger cities and have larger native communities.

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