Do you get extra work cause your bilingual?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I always have to deal with my patients, +plus other nurses patients because most of our patients are spanish speaking. This gives me extra work and puts me behind. It takes away from time I could be charting and dealing with my own work I could be doing.

Due to the demograhics of the population were I work, I think it should be mandatory for the nurses to take at least a medical spanish class. I dont want to open the can of worms of immigration/non english speaking people. Im just venting. Thanks for listening.

Specializes in Occ health, Med/surg, ER.
Internet gaming now lol

What Emmanuel? LOL..... Please explain that one.

0 Votes
What Emmanuel? LOL..... Please explain that one.

:lol2:

Gotta stop posting before I'm caffeinated.

I'm wondering how much the internet contributes to that, especially the online games these kids play.

Still not making sense LOL...

0 Votes
:lol2:

Gotta stop posting before I'm caffeinated.

I'm wondering how much the internet contributes to that, especially the online games these kids play.

Still not making sense LOL...

I don't think the net was very widespread when she was in germany ( early 90's) Europe emphasizes langauge more in the schools. It is common to learn not one language in school but 2 or more. It's recognized that this is a global economy and the more languages you have the better. I speak a smidge of french( we have to take it until at least middle school here) and I have forgotten tons but I can get along with it when needed.

0 Votes

I do applaud the European schools (and more progressive ones here) for promoting the study of other languages from an early age. I think it's great, and I took advantage of that when I got a chance. I chose two common languages, figuring they might serve me well when traveling or within the U.S. But can I speak Polish? Vietnamese? Lots of others? Nope. Do I have time to learn them all? Definitely not.

It may be useful to learn another language, but how many are we expected to learn? I still think it takes it too far to require that nurses take a class to learn a particular language that happens to help out with the dominant patient demographic at the time. So resources are spent to force adults to try to learn, say, Spanish, and then maybe a while later there are more patients who speak Polish or Chinese, and then what do you do? You can't train the staff to each be able to accommodate patients in every language, which is the whole reason why we have one national language to begin with - to try to establish a common way to communicate. And beyond that, you try to use interpreters where you can and whatever other resources you have.

There will certainly be patients who are trying to learn English, but haven't gotten to yet. Or those who are traveling. And so the nurses do their best to accommodate them as they should. But to mandate language study? It still seems wrong. And yay, Europeans frequently learn English, but their nurses still have the same problems we do when someone speaks, say, Greek. You can't cover it all! If I'm in Germany it's helpful that many there speak English, but I wouldn't just "expect" it to be that way simply because there are a lot of English speakers in the world. I just get lucky there, unlucky in Zimbabwe.

You can certainly encourage language study, and make resources more available. But to force it on people who've done their studying and gotten their license? It seems insufficient for medical communication, unfair to boot, and it would still leave many patients needing interpreters.

Argh. Life is complicated. Where's that tropical island to retire on? I see lots of sides in this argument, but I think people get too caught up in what would help them in their particular situation, and don't think about the extended issues. Because, well, we're human and we're tired.

0 Votes
Specializes in Occ health, Med/surg, ER.

Everyone seems to think from my original post that I want all nurses to learn Spanish. I don't. I do not work in a hospital. I am a OHN in a beef processing plant. About 90% of the workers there are Spanish speaking. We dont have Germans, French, or any other foreign speakers at my plant. Just Spanish.

Just like our nurse manager can recommend that we take a mandatory keyboarding or microsoft word class, I think my coworker should take a medical spanish class at least. AND....for the record, she wants to take one. We do not have a language line or designated translators at our plant.

It was not my intention from my OP to imply that all nurses should speak every language of every foreigner that comes through the hospital doors. That is ridiculous, of course. What I meant is that my friend could benifit from a medical Spanish course, that my employer should pay for.

0 Votes

I know in Germany and a lot of other places in Europe and Asia, kids are taught how to speak English from a very early age. I'm starting to see that kind of mentality here with our kids in the US learning to speak Spanish.

Okay... while I agree that immigrants should learn how to speak English, nurses who work with a lot of this particular population, IMHO nurses should try to learn at least enough Spanish to do their job more efficiently with a pt. who is Spanish speaking only. I know I'm probably going to get flamed for it... but would it really hurt? ... the learning of Spanish that is... not the flaming... that actually might hurt a little, lol.

0 Votes
I don't think the net was very widespread when she was in germany ( early 90's) Europe emphasizes langauge more in the schools. It is common to learn not one language in school but 2 or more. It's recognized that this is a global economy and the more languages you have the better. I speak a smidge of french( we have to take it until at least middle school here) and I have forgotten tons but I can get along with it when needed.

I know; that's why I said now. You're right.

0 Votes
Specializes in Occ health, Med/surg, ER.
I know in Germany and a lot of other places in Europe and Asia, kids are taught how to speak English from a very early age. I'm starting to see that kind of mentality here with our kids in the US learning to speak Spanish.

Okay... while I agree that immigrants should learn how to speak English, nurses who work with a lot of this particular population, IMHO nurses should try to learn at least enough Spanish to do their job more efficiently with a pt. who is Spanish speaking only. I know I'm probably going to get flamed for it... but would it really hurt? ... the learning of Spanish that is... not the flaming... that actually might hurt a little, lol.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

0 Votes

You're welcome lol.

I know it on my list of things to do, but I want to learn:

Spanish

and ASL (american sign language)

I know enough German to get around as it is... but you don't see too many German-only pt.s in the hospitals lol.

0 Votes
Specializes in Occ health, Med/surg, ER.
You're welcome lol.

I know it on my list of things to do, but I want to learn:

Spanish

and ASL (american sign language)

I know enough German to get around as it is... but you don't see too many German-only pt.s in the hospitals lol.

True about the Germans. Back then (in the 90s) and now. There are alot of Germans stationed at the Air Force Base in Holloman, NM. I have never met one that doesnt speak English.

p.s.

I would love to learn sign language.

0 Votes
Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Just FYI Adenium - lots of Zimbabweans speak English. Used to be a British colony. That's where Prince Harry's girlfriend is from. So cross Zimbabwe off your list of worries. ;)

I have some friends from Finland. They speak Finnish (duh!), Swedish (the 2nd official language of Finland), English without an accent and with perfect idiomatic expressions, and a smattering of French, Spanish, German, and Russian. The Swedish, English, and Russian were taught pretty much from grade school on up. If the rest of the world is anything like Finland, no wonder we Americans look uneducated!!

0 Votes
Just FYI Adenium - lots of Zimbabweans speak English. Used to be a British colony. That's where Prince Harry's girlfriend is from.

I have some friends from Finland. They speak Finnish (duh!), Swedish (the 2nd official language of Finland), English without an accent and with perfect idiomatic expressions, and a smattering of French, Spanish, German, and Russian. The Swedish, English, and Russian were taught pretty much from grade school on up. If the rest of the world is anything like Finland, no wonder we Americans look uneducated!!

For the most part we are... when it comes to reading comprehension/language skills. Our literacy rate is 99% but that's not great when you consider the fact that that makes us ranked at 21 along side a lot of other countries. (OMG thats a lot of thats... am I a hypocrite? HAHA... have you ever used a word so often it looks alien after a while?) And when we talk about 1% of the population, it represents aprox. 3,033,200 people that are illiterate.

Literacy Rate

US Population

IF

x=us pop

illiterate pop=.01 or 1%

y= total number of pop that is illit.

THEN

(x)(.01)=y

(303,319,958)(.01)=3,033,199.58

My calculations are far from perfect, but I was just trying to give a general idea. I'm actually interested in what [user]Emmanuel Goldstein[/user] has to say.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment