I will be a sophmore nursing major this fall and am considering minoring in Spanish. I would have to take five extra classes (including Spanish with medical terminology) next summer because there is no room in my busy schedule for Spanish classes. I have taken Spanish throughout elementary and highschool, so I would start at an intermediate level.
Would this extra effort make me more marketable as a future nursing graduate? Are hospitals seeking nurses that can speak Spanish, especially in pediactrics?
Specializes in Informatics / Trauma / Hospice / Immunology.
I am also in school and considering spending the summer strengthening my knowledge of Spanish. I understand lawsuit fear, but I also don't think it is a practical concern in many situations. I can see the danger of misinterpreting something a patient says and it leading to some malpractice situation. But on the other hand, are you really going to have a bilingual certified person covering every Spanish speaker seen in the E.R. in say, Los Angeles or NYC? Is the work around to try and use family members or other non-staff to do the translating?
I think learning Spanish for nursing just makes sense. If it takes becoming bilingual certified to be able to communicate with patients, I'll probably do that. I know there are a lot of places that are really desperate for help and they will never turn you away for having imperfect Spanish skills.
I'm a CNA/nursing student and my Spanish skills are pretty mediocre/second year college level without a lot of precision. Nonetheless, nurses and staff on the floor have been super happy for me to use my language skill to help with simple things like helping someone get a shower or order breakfast, rather than call an interpreter or trouble shoot our horrible interpreter phones. Also patients seem happy that they can express simple requests and I can help them. Would it be better if I was perfectly fluent and certified? Of course. It's on my bucket list.
In addition, in my experience, you will often have patients that speak languages you are unlikely to know and rarely do they have interpreters with them 24/7 (sometimes family stays to interpret). I also speak pretty good Japanese and the experience of knowing other languages helps me interact with people who only speak Russian, Cantonese, Hmong... not because I know any of those words but because I'm much better at explaining myself with a smile and simple words, gestures etc.
Maybe intermediate Spanish won't help you get a job, maybe it will, but it most certainly will help you when you're on the floor. Do it!
I think if you can fit the classes in your schedule, go for it! I got my first Bachelor's in Spanish but unfortunately my school didn't offer medical terminology or interpreting classes so I had to learn on my own. I am getting ready to challenge the interpreting test at my work, the pay isn't much more but I don't want to get written up for interpreting without a certification. Even if you're not interpreting the "serious stuff" as another poster commented, it is still very helpful to speak to patients in their native language for the other things. I find that it helps put patients at ease that they can speak with someone who speaks Spanish.
_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B
165 Posts
I am also in school and considering spending the summer strengthening my knowledge of Spanish. I understand lawsuit fear, but I also don't think it is a practical concern in many situations. I can see the danger of misinterpreting something a patient says and it leading to some malpractice situation. But on the other hand, are you really going to have a bilingual certified person covering every Spanish speaker seen in the E.R. in say, Los Angeles or NYC? Is the work around to try and use family members or other non-staff to do the translating?
I think learning Spanish for nursing just makes sense. If it takes becoming bilingual certified to be able to communicate with patients, I'll probably do that. I know there are a lot of places that are really desperate for help and they will never turn you away for having imperfect Spanish skills.