has anyone found Spanish for healthcare providers course helpful?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am in California and we have a lot of Spanish speaking patients here. I will possibly be moving to the San Diego area, where my amount of Spanish speaking patients is likely to be even higher. I have found both a Spanish for Healthcare providers and Spanish for Maternal Health (I want to be an L&D RN) courses. Has anyone taking any of these kinds of courses and found them useful? The Spanish for Healthcare providers is offered at a hospital nearby and the Maternal Health one is thru the same company but at a different location. They're kind of expensive (for a student anyways), so I was hoping I could hear from someone who has taken a course like this to see if it will be very beneficial. Thanks :)

Specializes in Pediatrics, med/surg, L&D/PP,Corrections.

It was offered through my employer a few years ago. I took it, and then dropped out of it.

It has potential to be helpful, but my class was filled with a bunch of people who knew NO spanish at all. The time I spent in class was spent teaching them the basics. Totally a waste to me, after having 4 years of High School spanish.

I would check with the instructor and see what type of class s/he tends to run.

It is meant as a continuing education spanish class, not a beginner to fluent in medical terminology class.

I start the nursing program in March, with plans of moving to CA after graduation, and further plans to take more spanish classes to become fluent. Id be interested in seeing what anyone else recommends.

In the class description is states, "No previous Spanish required". Since I know virtually no Spanish, I thought it could be helpful. Do you know if any of your classmates found that class useful?

Specializes in Pediatrics, med/surg, L&D/PP,Corrections.

Out of the 20 or so other students, NO ONE uses it. They came away with a few terms they remember, but none were confident enough to actually have a conversation with their spanish speaking patients.

Maybe its not the same exact class, since we are in different states. This one was definately a continuing spanish class. It was about 10 weeks long I think.

Im really not sure how a beginner spanish class with a focus on medical terminology would work out for you. I would think you'd need to be at least a little fluent in spanish before adding medical terminology into the mix. Otherwise, you'll be able to ask the questions to the patients, and unless they respond exactly like you're taught they'll respond, you wont know what they are saying.

Im really not sure how a beginner spanish class with a focus on medical terminology would work out for you. I would think you'd need to be at least a little fluent in spanish before adding medical terminology into the mix. Otherwise, you'll be able to ask the questions to the patients, and unless they respond exactly like you're taught they'll respond, you wont know what they are saying./quote]

I agree. I was going to take 2 semesters in Spanish before taking the course in medical terminology. My schedule doesn't fit to take a class on basic Spanish, so I'm going to buy Rosetta Stone. I've heard great things about it!!

Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

In California it almost a must since a majority of patients are from down south and speak none or very little English. I can understand some Spanish and speak very little but I get by.

Well with these replies I checked the local community college (I'm working on my BSN at a private college) and they offer an intro Spanish tele course (watch online) that does not grade you on the oral part, but does include audio & video tapes. This class starts in a few days and ends in May, so I would have some basics before jumping into the medical Spanish stuff. Should I list any of these courses on a resume? I will be applying in the next few months, so I would still be taking the CC course and have completed the Medical Spanish courses. I don't want to appear as misleading that I am fluent, but think that it might help some in getting hired if I have some basic knowledge of Spanish, especially if I end up working 15 miles from the border.

Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

I wrote about my experiences here: https://allnurses.com/nursing-articles/ob-nurse-small-360867.html

I have never taken a Spanish for healthcare providers course, but it sounds like a wonderful idea. My high school and college-level Spanish was a life-saver. I also was self-taught (on the job). Would it be possible to talk with the instructor or audit a few classes to help with your decision?

+ Add a Comment