Nurses not speaking english at work

[Guest296136]

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.

[nursel56]

sorry, but when you work in the us, you need to speak english at work!

i resent this attitude as an american born rn/fnp of mexican descent. i have heard this comment before but when you need me to translate for you then suddenly it is ok'd by people with this attitude for me to speak my first language which is spanish. you can't have it both ways. with hispanics (mexican/puerto rican/cubans/and other latin people being the fastest growing minority groups in the united states. in fact, i have seen ads for states such as virginia, ohio etc looking for spanish speaking nurse practitioners.

it's strange to me that you see your interpreter duties as a begrudged act that benefits the nurse in the proposed scenario. i'm going to take a wild guess here. those people with that attitude asking you to speak your first language which is spanish would probably rather they not have to track someone down (with or without attitude problem) and have their assessment take 2 or 3 times longer than it needs to because his or her patient does not speak english. in other words, most of us don't want it both ways.

what exactly is your point about the fastest growing minority group in the united states being spanish speaking? that it will soon reach critical mass and where there was english before, now there should be spanish because of sheer numbers? that the increase in population is some sort of indirect mandate for english speaking americans to learn spanish? english is the common language. that way, someone from vietnam, russia, new zealand, etc etc etc knows that once that is learned, they can communicate with all other immigrants no matter where shifting demographics take us. i see that as a good thing, and it's ultimately a fair thing, too.

[sammiesmom]

I am born in the Phils and we have over 100 local dialects. My first language is Tagalog which is the national language and whenever I am around with another Filipino who starts talking in their local dialect with friends, I get uncomfortable and suspicious (lol) so I understand what only english speakers are feeling.

If those ladies are Filipinos, you can ask them to speak English so you will understand and they will gladly do it for you. Filipinos are gentle folks and we like to be friends with everyone. However, you must understand, they are comfortable speaking in Tagalog with friends because this is the language they grow up with, the language that is closest to their hearts. They probably are forgetting to be courteous because they feel like they can be themselves when around their Filipino friends.

When my husband who is american came to the Philippines and met another american there, they acted like they are best friends and talked to each other all the time (in English and in front of my Filipino friends, shame on them huh? *wink) Its the same way with your co-workers. You can speak to them and tell them what you feel and i am sure the issue will be resolved. You might even get invited in their potlucks. Our food is delicious! (but im biased lol)

[Mission]

Group breaks = bad

As for the foreign language...if they were whispering in English would you feel more comfortable? It seems to me the language is not as much of an issue as to the OP being excluded from whatever camaraderie, conversation, and friendship is happening on the unit. I work with 2 Korean women who didn't come to the US till their 20s. I'll often find them speaking their native language because it's more natural to them, especially after a long day. If they want to include me in the conversation they'll switch to English, but if it's private/personal why do they need to make it easier for me to eavesdrop by speaking English?

Maybe they're talking about the best way to treat a yeast infection, or maybe they're talking about the OP? Either way they are choosing to exclude her and the language used has nothing to do with it. She can make the effort to befriend them and find out they were just talking about yeast infections or whatever. Maybe they're just a clique of snobs who aren't worth her time. Or she can go complain about it, find out they were talking about her, and now they'll just whisper about her in English and she'll just go on feeling alienated.

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

When i first began working in healthcare five years ago, I worked on a floors staffed by predominately Haitian and Philippino nurses who constantly communicated with one another in their language. I was not included in personal conversations and it did not bother me one bit, because if they talked about me I did not care because I was there to take care of patients and not be involved in gossip. If co-workers talk their native language it should not bother you unless they are asking you a question in that language.

I am a fluent spanish speaker and in the area that i live in I get penalized for speaking it outside the realm of translation but other people can speak creole and tagalog and it is not a problem. I think we all need to toughen up our skin and get over the little things... there are much more important things going on in American healthcare than what nurse is speaking spanish/creole/tagalog/ or whatever in a private conversation.

[Daliadreamer]

I just always hated it where I worked when I was a new grad because when they were talking about other patients in their language, I wanted to know what they were talking about! I felt like I was missing a learning opportunity because they could have been talking about patient's and treatments and history, and I could have learned from their conversations.

[klone, MSN, RN]

YOU ARE KIDDING, right!!!!!!

This is very insulting to all of us other immigrants! Why should we learn spanish? We live in America where english is the official language

No, English is NOT the official language of the US!

If 40% or more of your patient population only speaks Spanish, then darn right you should learn to speak it a bit!

More people speak Spanish in the US than Chinese, French, Hawaiian, and Native American Languages combined. So yes, it would behoove even other immigrant residents of the US to learn a little Spanish, too.

Oh, and the riots that are taking place in AZ are being put on by the immigrants and those who support them, not the fascists who passed the laws in the first place.

[smartnurse1982]

No, English is NOT the official language of the US!

If 40% or more of your patient population only speaks Spanish, then darn right you should learn to speak it a bit!

More people speak Spanish in the US than Chinese, French, Hawaiian, and Native American Languages combined. So yes, it would behoove even other immigrant residents of the US to learn a little Spanish, too.

Oh, and the riots that are taking place in AZ are being put on by the immigrants and those who support them, not the fascists who passed the laws in the first place.

Okl,will the immigrants pay for me to learn spanish,since I will be catering to them? Last time I checked,a majority of americans speak english. I did not barge into their country and demand they speak english,and I know if I went to Mexico no one would cater to me. They knowingly came to this country knowing a majority speak english,so maybe they should have immigrated to Spain or someother spanish speaking country.

The sense of entitlement has got to stop.

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

No, English is NOT the official language of the US!

If 40% or more of your patient population only speaks Spanish, then darn right you should learn to speak it a bit!

More people speak Spanish in the US than Chinese, French, Hawaiian, and Native American Languages combined. So yes, it would behoove even other immigrant residents of the US to learn a little Spanish, too.

Oh, and the riots that are taking place in AZ are being put on by the immigrants and those who support them, not the fascists who passed the laws in the first place.

While the US actually has no recognized "official" language, I think one would be hard pressed to say that any "official" language of the US is anything but English.

And expecting people to be able to produce documentation that identifies them as a lawful US resident is hardly fascist. I think everyone should have some sort of national identity card - and before I get flamed for invasions of privacy and all that other crap, let me say this: if you have a Social Security number and have achieved puberty, Big Brother already knows everything there is to know about you, so that's a moot point. If you have an SSN, you sort of already have a national identity card, since a SSN identifies you as being legally able to work in the United States.

I'm married to a Brit who always carries his green card on him (as he's supposed to per US law) and he has no problems with flashing it if he's told to. I have no problems with it either. It pi55es me off that it pi55es people off that folks are being required to do this - especially when I stop to think about how many illegals just drive around as though everything's cool and get treated for free in our hospitals and my husband and I paid thousands (yes, thousands - look it up) to the INS to process his paperwork so we could do this the right way, and we've got nothing to hide and are very much law abiding people!

You can scream at people to learn Spanish, and I'll counter that by saying if you're going to live - legally or illegally - in a country where your native language is spoken only by a little more than a tenth of the population (2006 estimates say 12.2 percent of the population speaks Spanish at home and there are about 320 million people living in the US) then it's your responsibility to learn a bit of English. Most families regardless of financial status own a television. Turn that sucker to public TV and off the Univision and start learning enough to survive - don't expect the rest of the country to cater to you.

Move to a foreign country and you'll find you'll pretty much be forced to learn SOMETHING of the native language. Don't believe me? Go to Japan and find out how much of their world ISN'T printed in English! I lived in Saudi Arabia (as a civilian) for three years. Arabic is about as foreign as it gets - but there were words and numbers I had to learn to recognize just as a survival mechanism. I learned that the hard way after I got lost and realized I didn't know where I lived - and I was in a taxi because women can't drive in the Kingdom! (I also learned that learning your way around as a passenger takes a different set of skills than when you can drive.)

Illegal immigration is a huge problem and it has to be corrected. If someone knows they're here (or anywhere, for that matter) illegally, why do so many defend their 'right' (and I use that term loosely) to stay? And I'm not talking about asylum seekers or people brought here against their will (but really, if you're a kid and you know you were brought here illegally, why not start working on becoming legal before you get to college? I do think there should be some sort of system for helping those kids once they're old enough to 'get' it because that's not necessarily their fault). I'm talking about people who know dag-gone well they're hiding from the authorities.

I admit to a moral dilemma on this topic. I'm proud that people still believe the US is the land of opportunity and if I lived in Mexico you can bet your behind I'd be doing everything in my power to get here and to get out of there (I've been to Ciudad Juarez and it's a hole, believe me - it's every border town cliche you've ever heard and more - and I've been through El Paso and Del Rio and Brownsville and I've seen the wires and the border patrol guards). But I also have a problem in that I know the hassles my husband and I went through to get him to the US - and he's blue eyed, blonde, white, and a citizen of an allied nation who spent twelve years working for the US military! - and part of the hassles are directly attributable to the problem of illegal immigration.

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

I just always hated it where I worked when I was a new grad because when they were talking about other patients in their language, I wanted to know what they were talking about! I felt like I was missing a learning opportunity because they could have been talking about patient's and treatments and history, and I could have learned from their conversations.

You were, and they were being unprofessional.

This has nothing to do with patient care, but when I was living in Saudi Arabia my husband and I were vacationing in Dubai. Dubai is full of foreign tourists and a lot of them are German. When we were at the resort's pool, there were two German men sitting near us who were apparently talking about me in flattering (???) but not-so-polite terms. My husband got wind of it and put a stop to the conversation by telling the men off in their native language - he lived in Germany for seven years and is fluent as a result!

Same thing did happen in a patient care related incident when I worked at Duke. There was a family there speaking Spanish and talking about my coworker in NOT nice terms, which is unfair because this person is possibly the best nurse I know. Actually, it seems they were slating everyone equally. (And this nurse is blonde and blue-eyed besides.) She walked out, calmed herself down, and got the patient's meds and something else they'd requested as a favor for their primary nurse. Imagine their surprise when she next went into their room and not only explained their meds in perfect Spanish, but also reminded them of the hospital's interpreter services.

She's fluent in the language.

You never know who's listening or what they can listen in....

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

Not cool at all! I use to worked nights and 95% were philipino rn's talking to eachother in tagalo offten bursting out laughing - not that this is wrong WHEN you are out of the work setting. I offten fealt uncomfortible aspecially after they were talking to eachother right after I asked them a question.You just get the feeling that they may be talking against you.Now, I want to make clear that I don't have a problem with people talking their own language - just not at work in the american hospital when english is the official language. I can say this because I am from germany and in the presence of english speaking people who do not speak german I always speeak english it is a common costum amongst us germans here in the U.S. I have also traveled around the world and I can tell you that in the hospitals everyone made the effort to speak english - it was hard to understand and funny at times but everyone tried their best to speak english. I amazes me that here in the States it is o.k. because anywhere else that would not "fly".

I love the Germans. I love it because any attempt you make to butcher their language in the spirit of trying to speak it is met with a smile and a response in English with no hard feelings!

Some of my favorite times have been spent in Germany - then again, my maiden name was decidedly German and my father's side is practically purely German, so perhaps it's a genetic thing!

As you've probably learned, the US is so concerned with bending backwards and being "PC" that any sense of national identity is starting to drift into oblivion in the process - and you're right, it flies nowhere else (although the UK is starting to get pretty bad as well).

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

Deleted because I'm an idiot. :)

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

sorry, but when you work in the us, you need to speak english at work!

i resent this attitude as an american born rn/fnp of mexican descent. i have heard this comment before but when you need me to translate for you then suddenly it is ok'd by people with this attitude for me to speak my first language which is spanish. you can't have it both ways. with hispanics (mexican/puerto rican/cubans/and other latin people being the fastest growing minority groups in the united states. in fact, i have seen ads for states such as virginia, ohio etc looking for spanish speaking nurse practitioners.

which is fine - but it's not out of line to expect people living here to learn some english, and if you work here, you need to speak english. this is america and we are still a primarily english speaking nation, even if we've not had the where-with-all to actually adopt it as our official language.

you popped the key word yourself - "minority". spanish is spoken by less than one-half of a quarter of the country's population.

go to germany and work in a german hospital and see how far speaking only english gets you. in the first place, they won't hire you unless that's what they're looking for. and the germans would have no problem in pulling you into someone's office and telling you you need to learn some german - for professionalism if for nothing else.