¿Hablas en Espanol?

[adventure_rn]

To all of my Spanish-speaking compañeros out there: Do you ever speak to Spanish-speaking patients at work without an interpreter? Do you worry about liability?

I speak Spanish well, conversationally but not fluently. I've taken classes in medical Spanish and worked in clinics in Latin America, but I've never been a certified, formal hospital interpreter.

My hospital does not serve a large Hispanic population, so when we do get Spanish-speaking patients on my unit (Neonatal ICU), we're pretty poorly equipped to work with them (even though we have a Language Line system, which I frequently remind my coworkers of). Consequently, whenever my coworkers have a Spanish speaking patient, they tend to come and grab me.

I'm absolutely in favor of calling the translator whenever we need to discuss a major medical change, or specific discharge instructions that require close patient compliance. I'm not going to try to explain to a scared, distressed parent why we're switching a baby from CPAP over to a ventilator (although I frequently have coworkers ask me to, who get ticked off when I refuse since they're busy trying to rescue their unstable baby...)

My bigger concern is that the small stuff, like minor changes in status and where to find the cafeteria, never gets passed along because it isn't important enough to get out and set up the Language Line. For instance, I had a mom whose baby had been on the unit for nearly 3 weeks. We have private rooms with pull out beds so the parents can live in the room with the baby; our parent showers are on the other hall. This mom, having lived in the unit the whole stay, asked me where the showers were--she'd been bathing in the sink for over half a month since nobody ever used interpreter services to discuss things like unit layout with her.

So, I ask you: what are your thoughts about using your Spanish? Is it ever appropriate, even to discuss things like unit policies? What about minor changes in status, etc.? Does your unit or hospital have a policy? Have you ever had any disciplinary action taken against you?

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

i speak very little but we are required to have a certified interpreter for admissions, consents, and discharges. I wish I spoke it better.

[sailornurse]

Spanish is my first language when I became a nurse in the late 1970s it was expected that we all interpret and back then we didn't think of the liabilities but heck back then we didn't have a nurse working in risk management dealing with malpractice lawsuits or negligence. Working in El Paso Texas, we would work entire shifts including giving report in Spanish. So didn't even speak English for a whole 12 hour shifts. That includes the physicians whom Spanish was also their first language. They even gave us orders in Spanish we gave her lab results in Spanish. This hospital the operative consents were in Spanish on one side English on the other. Another time when I was teaching nursing (that's when I learned that even though we were native Spanish speakers the hospital no longer allowed us to interpret for patients) my student used the interpreter who was on a computer (skype type) to do her teaching plan. The patient asked the interpreter about her IV catheter. The interpreter thought the patient was talking about her foley catheter. I interrupted the interpreter to ask her if she was Puerto Rican which she was and I explained to her that the word we use for foley catheter was different than the one she used. This just brings out that there are differences between Cuban Spanish , Puerto Rican Spanish , Guatemalan Spanish, Mexican American Spanish. The University of Tucson Arizona actually puts out a Southwestern Medical Spanish dictionary. Lots of jobs in this part of the country the ads say "Spanish -a plus" but that "plus" doesn't translate to my wallet! Heck I'm saving them having to use a medical assistant to translate for me, you know come on!