how hard can nursing program be to students whose first language is not english

[huiminx]

Hi,

i want to be a nurse, hopefully an RN one day. but my first language is not english, and i have been in the US just for 7 months even though my major in university in china was english(for 4 years). i still dont have enough confidence for english for the nursing program. i also got told if you are not fluent in english all your life, the study will be really hard for you since the nursing program is very professional, which is related to science. im kind of discouraged right now. i dont know how hard it is gonna be for me....=( hope people out here can give me some advice. thank you.

[justme1972]

Your English can't be that bad...you write better than manny Americans.

Keep in mind things like this: You'll never know it all, nor are you expected to.

The terms used in science, biology, anatomy and physiology, are foreign to MOST of us. Part of taking these courses is to teach you the terms of science.

I would probably recommend, even if you have had biology in your country, is to take it again here...that way you have a foundation of terms before you get to something more advanced.

All of us, even American-born citizens, still use a dictionary with great frequency when studying higher subjects. Even in nursing, they are always mentioning conditions/sympoms, and I have no idea of what they mean! So I keep a good medical dictionary near me, and learn as I go.

Medical Terminology courses, could be critical in your case...you'll learn what we call "root" words that is latin-based and frequently used, where you can sometimes figure out what a word means even if you have never seen it before.

For example, take the term "Polysaccharide".

Poly means "many" (latin based term)

Sacharride means "sugar"

Guess what polysaccharide means? It refers to "many sugars".

Even though technically, polysaccharides are very complex carbohydrates, they turn to sugar when they enter the body.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

I agree with the above post 100%, Medical terminology is a class even if not required you should take.

I work with a man whose English was not primary language, and he had some barriers with the slang used by teachers/classmates and patients. EX: finger foods are to be offered to a BH patient who is pacing the halls are not actual "fingers"!!!

But he did well on his written tests/practicals and clinical assignments and passed the NCLEX with the minimum questions. I am sure it was harder for him but he rose to the challenge and was a better student and now an AWESOME nurse because of it.