Nursing with a Southern Accent

rnsrgr8t · May 31, 2006

Having been raised and practiced as a nurse in GA, I am very used to the Southern accent. I think you should be just fine. I am in PA now and I have no problem. If you end up practicing out of the South, you will probably lose a lot of you accent, I did. I do notice that when I am around it a lot (when I visit my family) my "twang" comes back. I get teased sometimes (all with love) by my coworkers but it is not an issue. Good Luck!

TopherSRN · May 31, 2006

This is obviously a pressing issue since there are no nurses in the south solely because their accents prohibit them from being competent providers.

jameeladf · May 31, 2006

Personally I think it is just jealousy that anyone would bash your accent. The Southern accent is one of the most beautiful language dialects there is. Be proud of it and pass it along to your children. Check out the book Southern by the Grace of God by Michael Grissom. There is a whole chapter on the Southern accent. Also, be proud of the fact that you are from the best part of the greatest nation on earth!

Well, way to write an entirely biased reply. I was born and raised in North Carolina where the accents may vary from southern aristocratic to hillbilly mush. Personally, I find some very thick southern accents sloppy and at times irritating especially when the pronunciation strays far from the standard rules of phoenetics. I HIGHLY doubt that people from other regions of the country are jealous of southern accents. Prejudice is never excusable, but it is natural, and it is very true that quite often when someone from another region of the country, especially a better educated one, hears the speech of another person with a heavy southern accent, the first person will assume ignorance on the part of the speaker with the southern accent, and in some respects it is not an unreasonable assumption. Most people do not want to be pre-judged as ignorant or stupid.

Jolie, BSN · May 31, 2006

I wouldn't worry about your accent. I grew up in Chicago, moved to Kansas City in my 20's and was (gently) teased about my accent. Who knew I had one? Not me! My next home was Charlotte, NC, where a southern twang crept into my speech. I lost most of that when I went to Philadelphia. Then it was back to Chicago, and now Omaha NE, where my neighbor from Boston and I tease each other about our speech.

My point is that we ALL have "accents" or speech patterns that are unique to our areas of the country. I find them fascinating, and have never thought anyone less intelligent because of them.

Now, poor grammar and spelling are another can of worms :)

June55Baby · May 31, 2006

Personally I think it is just jealousy that anyone would bash your accent. The Southern accent is one of the most beautiful language dialects there is. Be proud of it and pass it along to your children. Check out the book Southern by the Grace of God by Michael Grissom. There is a whole chapter on the Southern accent. Also, be proud of the fact that you are from the best part of the greatest nation on earth!

58flyer, I couldn't have said it better myself. I am proud of my southern heritage, but I say "Southern by birth, Mississippian by the grace of God!".

I much prefer our soft, slow, accent that is easy on the ears to other accents I've heard with nasal twang and clipped, brisk speech patterns!

One thing that is funny to me is how words have different meanings in different parts of the US. In my part of the world, soda is what we bake with to make our cakes rise, but in other areas it means soft drinks which we call Coke no matter what it is, from Coca Cola to Pepsi to Nehi to RC. :)

That is one of the beauties of our multicultural nation!

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · May 31, 2006

Well, way to write an entirely biased reply. I was born and raised in North Carolina where the accents may vary from southern aristocratic to hillbilly mush. Personally, I find some very thick southern accents sloppy and at times irritating especially when the pronunciation strays far from the standard rules of phoenetics. I HIGHLY doubt that people from other regions of the country are jealous of southern accents. Prejudice is never excusable, but it is natural, and it is very true that quite often when someone from another region of the country, especially a better educated one, hears the speech of another person with a heavy southern accent, the first person will assume ignorance on the part of the speaker with the southern accent, and in some respects it is not an unreasonable assumption. Most people do not want to be pre-judged as ignorant or stupid.

Anyone who assumes ignorance OR stupidity based on the way someone else speaks REALLY needs to get out more. Seriously.

Being "better educated" is completely irrelevant. I've traveled enough to know that. I've met people who never graduated high school who are smarter than college graduates I've known - so "education", in the scholarly sense of the word, really means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I've met plenty of ignorant - and occasionally just STUPID (there is a difference in ignorance, which a person can't be blamed for, and stupidity, which is a person's own fault) - people from all over the world. What someone sounds like means nothing.

Bill Clinton is a Rhodes scholar and has a relatively heavy Southern accent. I doubt you'd consider him uneducated. (A maker of bad choices, most certainly - but hardly uneducated.)

Actually, being married to a Brit, I spend quite a lot of time both in London and in Southamption, England. I've been called "Scarlett" MANY times by men in pubs and earned a few free pints based completely on my accent. DH loves it (especially when there's free beer for me!) - and recently stopped me midsentence on the telephone and said, "I do so love your accent."

I mean, a sweet Southern drawl has to be more pleasant than some Yankee screaming, "YOUS GUYS, WAIT UP". (And I'm half Pennsylvanian!)

Jo Dirt · May 31, 2006

Hi y'all (that's the way I would say it anyway)
I'm planning to begin a nursing career in the fall of 2007 (accl. BSN program) and was wondering about something. I have a STRONG southern accent.

I know what you mean. Even my southern family wonders why my accent is so strong. I was in the south and got teased for my southern twang. I actually wish I didn't sound like such a hick, and when I try to sound not so hick-like it only accentuates that I'm trying to cover it up.

"Cake thick" someone told me my accent was.

I married a yankee from NYC. ON our trips up there it is funny because I can predict what people will say the first time I place and order, etc... "Huh?"

It happens 99% of the time!

Funny, but I can't say I have ever been discriminated against because of the way I talk.

LuvMyGamecocks · May 31, 2006

it is very true that quite often when someone from another region of the country, especially a better educated one, hears the speech of another person with a heavy southern accent, the first person will assume ignorance on the part of the speaker with the southern accent, and in some respects it is not an unreasonable assumption. Most people do not want to be pre-judged as ignorant or stupid.

I hope I'm reading this wrong. I really do. Do you mean that other parts of the country give a better education than Southern schools? It's NOT unreasonable to assume that a person with a strong Southern accent is ignorant? In what respects is it reasonable to assume ignorance? Please, do tell.

:angryfire

jameeladf · May 31, 2006

Anyone who assumes ignorance OR stupidity based on the way someone else speaks REALLY needs to get out more. Seriously.
Being "better educated" is completely irrelevant. I've traveled enough to know that. I've met people who never graduated high school who are smarter than college graduates I've known - so "education", in the scholarly sense of the word, really means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I've met plenty of ignorant - and occasionally just STUPID (there is a difference in ignorance, which a person can't be blamed for, and stupidity, which is a person's own fault) - people from all over the world. What someone sounds like means nothing.
Bill Clinton is a Rhodes scholar and has a relatively heavy Southern accent. I doubt you'd consider him uneducated. (A maker of bad choices, most certainly - but hardly uneducated.)
Actually, being married to a Brit, I spend quite a lot of time both in London and in Southamption, England. I've been called "Scarlett" MANY times by men in pubs and earned a few free pints based completely on my accent. DH loves it (especially when there's free beer for me!) - and recently stopped me midsentence on the telephone and said, "I do so love your accent."
I mean, a sweet Southern drawl has to be more pleasant than some Yankee screaming, "YOUS GUYS, WAIT UP". (And I'm half Pennsylvanian!)

I do agree with you that ignorant or stupid people can come from any part of "the world" and sloppy accents are certainly not limited to the south. It is the heavy bias of the poster's reply that I quoted in my op that compelled me to write what I did. No, I do not consider Bill Clinton uneducated, and yes he has a southern accent although I am unsure whether I would consider it "heavy". However, I have not heard him botching off consanants or completely omitting or switching vowel sounds in his speech either. Also, jmho, but it is a bit hypocritical of you to say that "anyone who assumes ignorance OR stupidity based on the way someone else speaks REALLY needs to get out more". That is not reality. I think it would be hard to find someone who would not question another's intelligence, especially an adult, who mispronounces words, speaks with flagrant grammar, etc. That is the real world. Most well-educated people are familiar with the most basic rules or english grammar. I will even go as far as to say that most of them do not go around speaking as follows: "He be xxxxxx..." "She be......" "They does...." "He do xxxxxx..." "Are then any coffee in there?!?!"" "Where you at?!?!!" It kills me when people end sentences with prepositions.....

jameeladf · May 31, 2006

I hope I'm reading this wrong. I really do. Do you mean that other parts of the country give a better education than Southern schools? It's NOT unreasonable to assume that a person with a strong Southern accent is ignorant? In what respects is it reasonable to assume ignorance? Please, do tell.
:angryfire

Perhaps that was poor clarification on my part. As I said, I was born and raised in the south, and I attend a southern university. As to whether other parts of the country give a better education that southern schools, I am not going to make that call. When I said "it is not unreasonable to assume....." I am not referring to a strong accent in general-- look at Dixie Carter. I love her speech. No, I was really referring to dialect, which can infer ignorance, that being to standard english grammatical rules and the rules of phoenetics. Please read my previous post.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · May 31, 2006

Anyone who assumes ignorance OR stupidity based on the way someone else speaks REALLY needs to get out more. Seriously.

Was going to reply to the same post, but that line summed it up for me.

jenny031 · May 31, 2006

HI! As long as you work in the south you won't have a problem! haha. I'm from Louisiana and came to New England as a traveler. Huge complaints from the geriatric population. One man asked me if I could "speak English". The younger crowd didn't seem to mind so much.