I had a 78 year old woman patient, bunch of kids and grandkids in the room. The patient spoke only Spanish and the grandson was translating. As I was exiting the grandma patient said something forceful so I turned and asked the man what she'd just said, and it was exactly that: "People in Healthcare should speak Spanish."
I was, well, insulted, speechless, fill in the blank. The patient had not been much of a problem until then. I stared at the grandson and didn't reply, just left. As I thought about it, I started thinking. I'm not a foreigner, why should I learn another language? I'm in the middle of the country to boot! And, why are these people insulting their caregiver anyway?
Talking this out with other nurses, I guess I wasn't the first one to hear such stuff. Is this something I should get used to?
It's also disheartening to learn that NO one (including patients) makes an effort to understand where the NURSE is coming from. Roll over and take it, in every aspect of the job, because we're martyrs that also can't have any kind of opinion on anything. Patients can call us names, swear at us, and insult us (in any language) and we can't do anything but accept it. Not all right.
Heck, other NURSES are calling us names right here on a community board meant for SUPPORT because one person vented her frustration! Of course, that's nothing new.
While it's not unreasonable to expect some give and take, we do need to take at least part of responsibility to adapt to the changing needs of our patient population, rather than just expecting the needs of the patient population to adapt to our shortcomings without any meaningful effort on our part.
Not speaking Spanish is not one of my shortcomings, nor is learning it my responsibility. I just got paid yesterday so I guess my employer doesn't require it. A patient's utter failure to plan for living life in this country is not one of my shortcomings. The shortcoming belongs to the patient in this case.
Being able to communicate with your patients greatly improves your ability to provide nursing care. Do you all really believe that you shouldn't be expected to make any attempts to provide better nursing care unless it is explicitly stated in your job description?
My job description makes no mention of acting as a patient advocate, does that mean that this is no longer an expectation of my role as a nurse?
Being able to communicate with your patients greatly improves your ability to provide nursing care. Do you all really believe that you shouldn't be expected to make any attempts to provide better nursing care unless it is explicitly stated in your job description?
My job description makes no mention of acting as a patient advocate, does that mean that this is no longer an expectation of my role as a nurse?
I have already stated earlier in this thread that I have had no difficulty communicating with any non English speaking patient. I simply use the language phone. It has never been an issue. I take offense at the patient in the OP thinking that we should all bow down and learn Spanish to accommodate her.
Everyone who says you need to learn spanish is a moron. period.
This is America and last I checked English was and is still the primary language; I immigrated from another country, I learned it, and so can they.
While it is the most common language, it is not our official language. Protestant Christianity is also the most common religion, should we all be required to be protestant Christians to better understand each other? Most Americans are overweight, should we all be expected to be overweight so that clothing manufacturers don't have to accommodate so many different sizes?
Being able to communicate with your patients greatly improves your ability to provide nursing care. Do you all really believe that you shouldn't be expected to make any attempts to provide better nursing care unless it is explicitly stated in your job description?
My job description makes no mention of acting as a patient advocate, does that mean that this is no longer an expectation of my role as a nurse?
I'm sorry, but you're REALLY reaching.
You talk as though the ONLY way to help ensure a patient's comfort or to advocate for them is to learn another language. And if you DON'T learn another language, you have done NOTHING to act as a patient advocate.
While it is the most common language, it is not our official language. Protestant Christianity is also the most common religion, should we all be required to be protestant Christians to better understand each other? Most Americans are overweight, should we all be expected to be overweight so that clothing manufacturers don't have to accommodate so many different sizes?
Continuing to reach. There is no way to attempt to make this comparison remotely relevant.
No, it's not our "official" language, but go take a drive down the street or the highway....what language are the signs in? What does that tell you? Watch TV. What language is being spoken?
In your comparison using religion, you say, "should be all be required to BE Protestant Christians...." Um, no. That would be like saying we are all required to BE Mexican in order to understand Mexican/Spanish-speaking-only patients. You can have KNOWLEDGE of a religion without converting to it (and IMO, having KNOWLEDGE of how to find translator and using a language line is enough to communicate with non-English speaking patients). Furthermore, someone's religion doesn't as directly affect communication in patient care (can some customs affect it to a certain degree? Yes....but not to the extreme of not being able to at least communicate about HOW those customs affect care).
You talk as though the ONLY way to help ensure a patient's comfort or to advocate for them is to learn another language. And if you DON'T learn another language, you have done NOTHING to act as a patient advocate.
Simply not true. Not to mention ridiculous.
Actually my example was not intended to relate the two, although your assumption that the two were related is a good example of how they probably are related to at least some degree, but again, that wasn't my point.
There was a premise asserted that if it's not in our job description then it's not our responsibility as nurses. My job description, does not include any mention of my role as a patient advocate. My point being that even though my job description doesn't mention, I still consider acting as patient advocate to be one of my responsibilities.
There was a premise asserted that if it's not in our job description then it's not our responsibility as nurses. My job description, does not include any mention of my role as a patient advocate. My point being that even though my job description doesn't mention, I still consider acting as patient advocate to be one of my responsibilities.
pt advocate is NOT our responsibility.
it is an ideal, something of which i voluntarily aspire to be/do.
our actual responsibilities, are delineated in our job descriptions, and as outlined in our state's npa.
tntrn, ASN, RN
1,340 Posts
Well said. And I work with several bilingual nurses (not all the same language, BTW) but there is no extra pay for that.