Language or Experience?

It would help to think of this situation from the patients' side of things and not the coworkers'. If you had an emergency and didn't speak the language, would you want an experienced nurse who you couldn't understand, or would you want a less-experienced nurse who you could efficiently communicate with?

Depends on what's going on. If my child is having abdominal pains but is obviously not in immediate danger of dying, I might prefer the nurse who can explain to me in my own language what his problem might be, as long as she's capable of also giving him the care he needs. If we've just been in a car accident and my child is in danger of bleeding out, I want the experienced nurse who has dealt with 100 previous car accidents, not the one who has only been on the acute care floor and has only dealt with trauma patients after they are out of immediate danger (BTW, I am that nurse -- dealt with lots of trauma pts in rehab, never dealt with one who was still bleeding). I would want them to save my son's life first, and explain it to me later.

I seem to be swimming against the tide here, but I would have hired someone with 10 years of ED experience over someone with no ED experience and only 2 of M/S nursing. But then I worked in a hospital that had Spanish interpreters in the ED 24/7, and interpreters for other languages available by phone on short notice.

It's not that I don't value language skills. Given a choice between two otherwise equally qualified RNs, I would choose the one with language skills in a heartbeat. But I happen to think that nursing skills are a higher priority. Hire interpreters to do the interpreting!

Just my $0.02

This is clearly a situation you have no control over. The only thing you can do is focus on yourself and your patients. For the pts. benefit this nurse needs support and people should refrain from making negative comments about him/her.