Are nurses in other nations bilingual? Should US be?

Nurses General Nursing

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I had an arguement with one of my nurse practicioners yesterday. Irregardless of how any of us feel about immigrants, legal or illegal, it's very frustrating to have to treat a patient when you or no one around speaks thier language. I've encountered it many times, and most of you have as well.

As a military brat, I encountered other cultures that told me that in thier nation, they were required to take other language classes in school, from primary and certainly be fluent in at least one other than thier mother tounge to have a university degree. I sometimes think that we should require nurses to learn at least one other language. My practicioner got HOT and tells me I am nuts. That other industrialized nations do not require citizens to learn a second language in school. Back it up.

Can any of you help me with where to find data to back up my arguement?

Specializes in Hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, transplant..

Defenetly, Americans do not have to learn another language and undoubtedly all kinds of immigrants have to learn an American ( Language you speek is not English)

Oh give me a break, wmarat! We speak English here, because the first European settlers here were from England. I'm not getting into the whole Native American debate. It might be a different dialect, but it is English. Don't go there, that is ridiculous.

I, for one, would love to be bilingual, but not because I want to make it easier for people to come here illegally and benefit from our system without doing anything to help themselves. If you come here legally, welcome! If not, get out. In my experience, the people who are here legally are not the problem. I have a friend who moved here from China when he was 8. He learned English by watching Sesame Street, and mastered it when he started school here.

I also work with a wonderful woman from India. She was precepting an equally nice fellow from the Philippines, who had a lot of trouble with his English when he first got here (was here for educational purposes). This woman speaks wonderful English (probably better than a lot of Americans I know who are just sloppy, lol), but she does have a rather strong accent. Anyway, she was getting very frustrated with this lad because he refused to say things the way we say them (ex: taping report, he would say "laboratory values" instead of "labs"), and she finally said, "JohnDoe, this is America! You have to say things the way we say them here!". Just goes to show that us dumb Americans are not the only ones who feel that you should learn the language of the country in which you reside.

I have been saying since I was in elementary school that there should be a universal language that everyone can speak so that we can all communicate with each other, but it will never happen. So we have to do the best we can. If I ever move to Sweden, I will learn Swedish. Otherwise, I don't think that I will be able to learn another language and keep it up. I took 5 years of Spanish, but use it so infrequently that all I remember now are the basics. Sorry, this is getting too long. I'll stop now. :trout:

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
Defenetly, Americans do not have to learn another language and undoubtedly all kinds of immigrants have to learn an American ( Language you speek is not English)

We speak English here. As with any language that is spoken in more than one country, there are some differences, but that doesn't change it into a language that doesn't exist.

Specializes in Neuro.

I'm going to get on my little soapbox over here for a minute. I have read all of the posts and while I am not necessarily surprised at many of the responses, part of me is upset about it, at least as far as the health care aspect is concerned. The thing that really bothers me about these threads in which people preach the "English first" mentality in the healthcare field is threefold.

One, regardless of whether we do or don't feel the immigrants should speak English, the fact is that many of them either don't, or don't feel comfortable with the language, and we have to talk to them anyway. So for practicality's sake, I feel it's better to be able to communicate with people rather than stomping my foot and demanding they learn "my" language.

Two, even if an immigrant DOES learn English, as many people said, even after years of studying a foreign language, it is very difficult to be fluent in it. While a person may know enough English to hold a job, go to school or buy groceries, they may not know English medical terminology, making it difficult for them to communicate their problems in patient settings (I have a BA in Spanish and am still unfamiliar with many medical terms in Spanish, and I have a hard time remembering simple things like body parts that I don't commonly use in conversation).

Three, when we do interact with immigrants who may or may not know English, in most patient settings we are dealing with them because there is some kind of crisis or sudden change in them or their family. When I am under stress, in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable situation, I often find it difficult to express myself in my OWN language, let alone someone else's.

While I will admit that there are many foreigners in the US who simply don't try to learn English for whatever reason, I feel there are also a great many who do, but are either new in the process, uncomfortable with medical terminology, or under stress that hinders their ability to communicate.

As much as people say "if I moved to France of course I'd learn French" I always have to wonder how true that is (after all, many people in France speak English, so maybe they will decided there is no real need to learn French) and I wonder what would happen to these people who get in a car crash and wind up in the hospital and are so frazzled that their French vocabulary goes out the window.

Just food for thought.

Okay, I'm back. The posting from Wmarat just backs up what we're all saying: no other country caters to people from "outside".

And you're missing the whole point here: no one is saying we shouldn't learn other languages. We don't want to learn other languages to make it easier for people who live here and won't learn English.

Meghan, this is not about people who speak English and don't feel comfortable with it. I wouldn't even expect a US-born white person from Wisconsin to know medical terms. This is about people who refuse to even learn the language of the adopted country. What other country provides bilingual education so that Spanish-speaking kids don't have to sit in classrooms taught only in the national language? You think if you move to Mexico, your children will be taught in English? I don't think so!

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

It isn't even that I don't want to learn Spanish and make communication easier for other people and myself. It is that I shouldn't "have" to as a requisite to the career of my choosing. Mainly because in fact I did take 5 years of Spanish- 3 in middle school, just a couple of days a week and 2 in high school- daily, and it just wasn't a strength for me. I don't have the "ear" for other languages. It hasn't kept me from being a good nurse. Sorry, but whywhywhy should an immigrant's inability to understand the language of my land be more important than my job?

I think everyone should speak one language. It seems that one language should be English at this point since most industrialized nations already require competence in English. It's not that I am against diverse cultures or anything of the sort its just impractical.

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
I'm going to get on my little soapbox over here for a minute. I have read all of the posts and while I am not necessarily surprised at many of the responses, part of me is upset about it, at least as far as the health care aspect is concerned. The thing that really bothers me about these threads in which people preach the "English first" mentality in the healthcare field is threefold.

One, regardless of whether we do or don't feel the immigrants should speak English, the fact is that many of them either don't, or don't feel comfortable with the language, and we have to talk to them anyway. So for practicality's sake, I feel it's better to be able to communicate with people rather than stomping my foot and demanding they learn "my" language.

Two, even if an immigrant DOES learn English, as many people said, even after years of studying a foreign language, it is very difficult to be fluent in it. While a person may know enough English to hold a job, go to school or buy groceries, they may not know English medical terminology, making it difficult for them to communicate their problems in patient settings (I have a BA in Spanish and am still unfamiliar with many medical terms in Spanish, and I have a hard time remembering simple things like body parts that I don't commonly use in conversation).

Three, when we do interact with immigrants who may or may not know English, in most patient settings we are dealing with them because there is some kind of crisis or sudden change in them or their family. When I am under stress, in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable situation, I often find it difficult to express myself in my OWN language, let alone someone else's.

While I will admit that there are many foreigners in the US who simply don't try to learn English for whatever reason, I feel there are also a great many who do, but are either new in the process, uncomfortable with medical terminology, or under stress that hinders their ability to communicate.

As much as people say "if I moved to France of course I'd learn French" I always have to wonder how true that is (after all, many people in France speak English, so maybe they will decided there is no real need to learn French) and I wonder what would happen to these people who get in a car crash and wind up in the hospital and are so frazzled that their French vocabulary goes out the window.

Just food for thought.

So, if after many years of Spanish speakers attempting to learn English it is still difficult to master medical terms, why then would the case not be reversed? Even if English speaking medical personnel were forced to learn some other language, why wouldn't it be equally difficult to master the medical terminology of another language? And are we automatically going to favor Spanish speakers over all the other patients who speak languages other than English? How is that fair?

Just as with trained medical interpreters are preferable to family members or friends serving as translators, they would also be preferable to me as a nurse using the language without specific training in interpretation. I don't oppose making translation resources available. I do object, strongly in fact, to the notion that I am the one who should be making changes here.

Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.

When we are taking care of a patient, it is our job to communicate with that person. We might use a family member as translator, gestures, or a picture board with pictures for pain, thirst. hunger, etc. If the nurse happens to speak the pt's language, it's easier for both. Even if it's just a few words to help make the pt feel more comfortable.

It's not time to be judgmental about the pt's inability to speak English or to focus on the pt's immigration status. Often a nurse will tell me that a pt speaks only Spanish. However, when I go in and begin to speak Spanish, the pt will also be more comfortable using the English he knows.

I'm not saying everyone has to speak perfect English! I certainly don't speak perfectly. I don't think anyone does, for that matter. But if you can tell me, "I have to go to the bathroom", it will be a whole lot easier for everybody. I could sit here and type this response in Spanish right now, and it would be riddled with errors, but the message would get across. There is a difference in getting a degree in a language and being able to speak enough to get by. I can go into una tienda en Mexico and ask, "?Cuanto cuesta esta lapiz?", and if you come here, you should be able to go to a store and ask "how much does this pencil cost?" I'm sure my grammar/spelling/whatever (punctuation, lol, I can't make an upside down question mark!) are incorrect, but you would be able to figure out what I wanted. I'm not asking for perfection, I'm asking for competence.

Specializes in Pain Management.

Just throwing this out there - So what should the primarily English-speakers do when the composition of the United States changes so that native Spanish-speakers are the majority?

Would we still be able to say "English first"?

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