Is Spanish a very impt language to learn in California?

[bernskiw]

hello to all! I am a nurse and will be working in Cali before this year ends. WIll learning how to speak Spanish help my competency as a Californian nurse? THank you for all your opinions :)

[West_Coast_Ken, BSN, RN]

I totally hear you and really I agree about learning the language of the country you are in... but... what are the migrant workers in my area going to do? Listen to English language tapes while picking oranges like slaves all day? Most of them probably fall into bed in a coma every day when they come home from doing a job that no regular residents in my area are willing to do. Most don't have transportation and send all their extra money back home. I would not say that these people in my area are "refusing" to learn English.

And as far as "making things harder", if I had to characterize my Spanish speaking patients as a group so far, I'd say they have been the most polite, cooperative ones of all!

I know it's easy to say what someone should do from afar, but it's hard to think of these things when you are in abject poverty, no? I live a charmed life compared to them and I'm not always motivated to do the things I should...

y, Ken, parece que ya sabe espanol!

Hi Mitchsmom (btw, I am Mitch's dad!...but not the same Mitch, of course),

I have tried to carefully stay away from the immigration debate and have my views on that topic as does everyone else.

I just refuse to add translation to the list of duties for nurses. If the administrators over medical services want to cater to foreign language only pts, then they can provide translators. If a nurse wants to learn to speak Spanish, all power to them. I will not.

The United States is a land of great opportunity. I firmly believe there are pleanty of opportunities for everyone who has chosen to live here to learn to speak English and pronto!

"Y, no, yo no sé cómo hablar español. Sé cómo hacer investigación, sin embargo."

[English translation]:

And, no, I don't know how to speak Spanish. I do know how to do research, however. I used www.freetranslation.com

Regards,

Ken

[Euskadi1946]

Whether people like it or not the Hispanic population is growing by leaps and bounds in the USA and the reality is that yes we will have alot of Hispanic patients who do not speak English and will need people who speak Spanish to take care of them. I also agree that they do need to learn English if they are going to live here in the United States. Also wanted to let you know Ken that the American Indian languages were the "official" language of this country long before Columbus discovered America and 50 years before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock, Spanish was the official language of what is now the United States of America. I'm bi-lingual in Spanish/English and very proud to be a Hispanic Nurse!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fergus51]

I do think hospitals need to take the initiative in hiring interpretors. It isn't fair to expect to add this to nurses' duties. The spanish speakers I work with have too much to do with their own assignments to be able to come over and interpret for me.

[RebeccaJeanRN]

I am amazed by the resistance to learning some basic Spanish that will help you with the many non-English speaking clients. As 'if' by NOT learning, the need will go away. I have been taking Spanish for years and I am still really bad at speaking it. I'm older and find that I get tongue tied with so many words. So I know that when someone comes here speaking only Spanish and is an adult, that it will take them a LONG time to get proficient, no matter what the desire- even more so if they are older than 30 and a homemaker or basic laborer (where they aren't forced to practice English by circumstance). So what do you do with an adult who hasn't learned English and who has a dire medical need? Resent that he/she doesn't speak English yet? Resent it all you want, but the need to communicate to Spanish speaking clients will NEVER diminish and will only increase over time...so I, for one, to continue to practice at it. Its a practical matter, and one that allows me to be compassionate as well as get the job done- having this practical skill is a separate issue from the debate over immigration.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

In one of our homecare branches RUSSIAN is the language that's desired to be spoken by nurses. Wish my mom hadn't encouraged me to learn HS French---only used it 2x in my career...little Polish I remember from childhood didn't help either. My sons had 4 yrs HS Spanish at my urging.

School district my girlfriends daughter teaches in has 26 languages spoken by students. We've become a multi-linguistic society and need to try and accommodate our patients needs for our teaching to be most effective.

Our agency uses AT+T Language line for interpretive services, sure helps. PS: Our friend JCAHO requires interpretive services be provided to patients.

Learning Spanish will make your job easier ..take the opportunity to learn now if you have the chance.