Nurses not speaking english at work

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I work nights and the majority of the night nurses are foreign, they are all very good nurses but sometimes I feel out of place because they are always speaking their language to each other. They all take their breaks together and have a feast every night, many times leaving me on the floor by myself. I am out numbered and am afraid to say anything, it took awhile to get accepted and I don't want to make waves.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
My answer to that question may not be popular so I will keep it to myself :)

Bottomline as I see it is that my politics and philosophies are opposite to about 80 percent of this profession. Therefore, I will either need to learn to keep my mouth shut, or find something else to do :)

I do have one question though. I hear how fab NHS is....why am I seeing British nurses away from "home" in droves? Just curious

I think you will find the NHS like any other nursing work place in other countries has it's problems. I left the UK to gain new experiences and to travel, nothing against the NHS. If you check out the International forum or the UK forum you will see US nurses talking about moving to the EU/UK to work in the same way someone from the EU/UK wants to move to Australia, Canada or the US. However retrogression has put a stop to that in 2006 and many many nurses are stuck waiting

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I am as white as they come and only speak English. However, The USA does not have an official language. Due to freedom of speech we may speak whatever we please. If the nurses are speaking to the patients in the patients first language, there is not much the hospital can say.

Them leaving you alone on the floor is a saftey hazard that should be addressed.

An employer can require employees to speak English while on duty. This is not a violation of freedom of speech.

And so far no one has referred to nurses speaking to patients in their native language. This has been about co-workers speaking to each other in another tongue to the exclusion of an English-speaking nurse.

I do agree, though, about the safety hazard of leaving a lone nurse to handle everything on the floor while the others have fun in the break room.

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I am foreign born nurse and I recently completed a second degree accelerated program for non-nurses. While I understand that it can feel extremely uncomfortable listening and sitting in the midst of other co-workers speak in their native languages, yet still I believe they have the right to interact with each other in their language of choice and of course not during patient interactions. It is amazing that it is okay for nurses from this country to speak in English and use curse words when they are upset with a situation, and form their own "clicky" group because that is in line with "being American." Additionally, there is no bias towards the enrollment of foreign born US nursing students especially when we are all aware that they went through the same rigorous application process. Hopefully, the experiences of the compliant will highlight the difficulties that arise when one feels out of place; fate foreign born individuals continue to face in this country. It is imperative that we all learn and understand that cultural differences are supposed to be exhilarating and not fearful. I spent my formative years outside this country surrounded until college by individuals from 62 different countries (comprised of diverse races) and I never knew what discrimination was until I came to this country. However, I channeled my experiences into a positive attitude and I have continued to act as I did in my childhood (avoid seeing color and race) when things do not go my way and rather try to address the issue at hand.

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I am foreign born nurse and I recently completed a second degree accelerated program for non-nurses. While I understand that it can feel extremely uncomfortable listening and sitting in the midst of other co-workers speak in their native languages, yet still I believe they have the right to interact with each other in their language of choice and of course not during patient interactions. It is amazing that it is okay for nurses from this country to speak in English and use curse words when they are upset with a situation, and form their own "clicky" group because that is in line with "being American." Additionally, there is no bias towards the enrollment of foreign born US nursing students especially when we are all aware that they went through the same rigorous application process. Hopefully, the experiences of the compliant will highlight the difficulties that arise when one feels out of place; fate foreign born individuals continue to face in this country. It is imperative that we all learn and understand that cultural differences are supposed to be exhilarating and not fearful. I spent my formative years outside this country surrounded until college by individuals from 62 different countries (comprised of diverse races) and I never knew what discrimination was until I came to this country. However, I channeled my experiences into a positive attitude and I have continued to act as I did in my childhood (avoid seeing color and race) when things do not go my way and rather try to address the issue at hand.

Foul language is never acceptable neither is clicky groups.

When I read on this forum that foreign students went to nursing school and now are trying to work in the USA without proper visas, I can only think that this foreign student took a position from a USA legal resident and now can't work as a nurse what a waste! Another point is that the International Students feel they can cut the line since they were educated in the USA, that would not be fear to the thousands of foreign nurses who have been waiting patiently to enter.

I agree about cultural differences, I am surprised you feel the USA is the worst when it comes to discrimination.

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And someone also may say that people are jealous of Americans....which is totally not the case,I have a few international friends who are highly educated (one is a doctor with specialty,one is an engineer and another one is accountant) You wouldnt pay them enough to live in US. They come here just for the summer time (ocassionaly since they prefer to go to Greece,Mexico,Brazil) and gladly go back to their country of origin.

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We have a large population of RNs born in the Phillipines who speak Tagalog. Few people know this, but the Phillipines have been under US military control since the Spanish-American war (similar to the relationship the US has with Puerto Rico and Guam). Filipinos are not allowed to participate in US elections, but are often given immigration preference to work as RNs during periods of nursing shortage.

I have to correct a few things.

1) The Philippines was granted soverignty and independence in 1946 after it had been occupied and oppressed by the American Military for 50 years (Water-boarding as a torture technique was developed as use against the Filipinos during the 1890s when they tried to kick out the new invaders).

2) American military presence cast a looming shadow over everything in the Philippines including manipulations in government and economy until the 1992 removal of the last US Military base in the Philippines.

3) Filipinos are not given preference, they are the most harshly retrogressed country. The only advantage that Filipino nurses have over non-filipinos is that the education is on the same level as US colleges of nursing and the instruction is all in English.

I do agree with you though; that the sins of our past against the Filipino people are harsh and it is comforting that some of the debt to the Pinoy society can be repaid through the employment of Filipino nurses in the USA.

Few realize this, however: Through the 1940s and 1950s the US government developed nursing education programs in the Philippines with the express purpose of creating a mass of nurses from the Philippines to use across the world in US hospitals for the military as well as civilians.

The American government created the process and culture of creating masses of nurses in the Philippines to be employed abroad and did nothing to adjust the culture when they abruptly were forced out in 1992.

The culture still exists today and honestly it is through no fault of the Philippine people.

They were promised that jobs would always be available for Filipino nurses and they are simply operating on that promise.

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This sounds a lot like where I work, although the numbers of people speaking each separate language isn't that high. We have about 4-5 African nurses w/ techs who love to get together and speak their language. Lately, though, they've been doing it in the nursing station and it drives me nuts. I really don't care about it on breaks, but to add another language to the hectic chaos of the nursing station just makes it seem crazier, and it automatically excludes others who don't speak that language. A lot of times I wonder if that isn't their intent.

A few of them are a little clicky, also -- so it doesn't help. A couple speak it, but they are NOT clicky and are good friends of mine.

I feel their clickiness bothers me more even than speaking some other language . . . We seem to have one african nurse who really seems to have a distain for white people. I'm sorry, but that is her own reverse racism showing ... she is one of the folks I really don't enjoy working with as I get tired of her attitude and her bullying. But she's definitely the exception.

I'm not sure if these nurses are getting hired to work cheaper on our floor. I believe most of them are American citizens except a few of our filapino nurses. All of them usually do not speak tagalog, though -- many speak perfect English and I really enjoy working w/ all of them.

I've been a foreign person living in a foreign country, and I know how comforting it is sometimes to just "be with your own" and speak your native tongue. Still, these folks needs to know they're in a professional setting and English is the standard. As long as they confine it to breaks, that's enough.

Leaving you on your own is TERRIBLE, though -- that should stop.

As for why so many foreign nurses work while Americans are out of work?? Well, I believe there is a lot going on throughout this country in this regard, not only in healthcare. It's a problem. Look to the political climate and to our politicians and others who seem to want to represent foreign workers and illegals more than they want to represent American citizens. It's getting worse and worse -- that's why a lot of people are very mad and just waiting until November to vote out a lot of incumbents in Congress and in local races.

I am shocked, personally, by the numbers of foreign nurses. We see these nursing schools being so "selective" and yet so many of our nursing class were foreign students -- whatever happened to admitting an American to the class -- there was undoubtedly no shortage of applicants. Yet, I do not know the number of American students who applied.

I know alot of schools give extra points if you speak another language...I know my school does. So maybe that can account for some of the increases in foreign students.

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It's all about business. Blame it on $ hungry US schools. They charge a higher tuition for foreign students-----so it obviously makes them earn a lot by doing that than to accept someone who's from the US.

I am shocked, personally, by the numbers of foreign nurses. We see these nursing schools being so "selective" and yet so many of our nursing class were foreign students -- whatever happened to admitting an American to the class -- there was undoubtedly no shortage of applicants. Yet, I do not know the number of American students who applied.

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for all the time people spent on complaining; you could have spend that time learning tagalog, spanish, and possibly basic eastern languages.

America is a melting pot, we don't even speak ENGLISH CORRECTLY. If all you do is focus on complaining about how foreigners are taking over your going to be stuck behind as the world progresses on. Report what is need to be reported about abandoning their post, but after that you should stop being a wall flower and say "hi".

It's time to get over it, take this time to diversify your resume, get a masters, learn a new language, bring a can of spam for lunch and make a new friend. Learn something new

-signed the jewish guy born in Detroit married to a Mexican National.

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for all the time people spent on complaining; you could have spend that time learning tagalog, spanish, and possibly basic eastern languages.

America is a melting pot, we don't even speak ENGLISH CORRECTLY. If all you do is focus on complaining about how foreigners are taking over your going to be stuck behind as the world progresses on. Report what is need to be reported about abandoning their post, but after that you should stop being a wall flower and say "hi".

It's time to get over it, take this time to diversify your resume, get a masters, learn a new language, bring a can of spam for lunch and make a new friend. Learn something new

-signed the jewish guy born in Detroit married to a Mexican National.

English not your first language is it? That post was all over the place ;)

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Hmmmm everyone is dancing around my questions.

I will assume this is because the answers are not known and I can respect that as I also do not know the answers.

Perhaps these nurses were hired a few years ago, during the "nursing shortage" era. Perhaps the specific hospital that the OP works at has a difficult time finding nurses. Perhaps these nurses are indeed US citizens, with every right to work as Caucasian, English-speaking nurses. I would certainly not assume that these nurses are being chosen over another demographic of nurses.

Oh, and the US does not have an official language. While I agree it's rude to speak a foreign language that not everyone understands, I don't agree with "if you're in the US, speak English!" sentiment. Until the US adopts one official language (and who knows, maybe they'll adopt two like Canada), then we're still a melting pot.

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Phillippino nurses may have a BSN but it is not equal to the USA since they have only 2 years of high school. Also the quality of the education is poor were less than 20 percent pass their local boards to say it is better is incorrect.

Also, for patient safety one should speak English since this what the facility uses.

To expect english speaking nurses to learn another lang. Is crazy since all foreign nurses claim to be fluent in English.

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