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?
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 totally agree that pt's deserve the best care they can get from the nurses. But asking us to learn a new language is asking way too much. If a nurse happens to know spanish well fine, that works to the advantage of both the nurse and the pt, but I don't think its a priority for us to learn spanish or any other language than our own.
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.
So, which of these following languages do you have a working knowledge of: Spanish, Marshallese (Marshall Islands), Tagalog, Vietnamese, Thai, and any of the several different African languages? Oh, and Russian or Ukrainian. These are just some of the patients we see in our hospital in W. Washington. Do you suggest we, as nurses, must have a knowledge of all of these languages to be responsible nurses?
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?
No. I don't believe I should be expected to know every single language in the event that a patient who speaks that language comes in and EXPECTS me to speak it because "I work in health care." I very well may choose to learn Spanish someday. However I reserve the right to be annoyed that a patient EXPECTS it from me.
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?
NO. So why in the h-e-double hockey sticks should I be expected to learn SPANISH?
Exactly, so why should the patient be expected to learn English?
Because unless they are here on vacation and arrived yesterday, that would be the right thing to do in a country that they came to for a "better life." There are responsibilities on both sides of this equation.
may all of you never have to flee to another country because you are denied the tools you need to provide for your family, or denied the healthcare you need to save your or your children's lives. i personally cannot imagine the magnitude of those situations, am thankful that i don't have to, and am more than willing to assist those who do.
I also understand and sympathize with the difficulties these individuals are facing, and hope that I never find myself in that situation. However, I don't feel that my responsibility to provide nursing care extends to my having to learn a new language. My hospital employer is already required by the government to provide translation services, and I consider that a more than adequate accommodation.
And if I did ever find myself in that situation, and had to flee to another country, I would not expect the government or citizenry of that country to accommodate my inability to speak their primary language. I would consider it my responsibility to learn their primary language.
Specializes in Telemetry, Oncology, Progressive Care.
You make it sound as though it's unreasonable because she is the only Spanish speaking patient out there, when there are actually about 40 million people in the US who speak Spanish as their primary language.
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.
I completely disagree with you on this. This is not only an issue of their healthcare. How about their day to day living. Just going out and running errands or the numerous other things that go on in your life. The bottom line is if you are going to live somewhere you need to adapt to the environment around you. I would not move to Mexico and expect them to adapt to me. I do not feel I need to take part of the responsibility to adapt to them. It is NOT a shortcoming of mine. If I choose to become fluent in spanish then so be it. It's not something I desire to do living in the US and yes learning another language does require effort on my part. I went to school to learn how to do nursing. Sorry, but my being a nurse has nothing to do with learning another language. It's bad enough we're supporting them and giving them free medical care.
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.
So now in order to be patient advocates we have to learn to speak the patient's native tongue, even though THEY have made the CHOICE to seek medical care in a predominantly English speaking country? I don't follow you, and I am glad that I don't. Your line of reasoning makes no sense to me.
If you have the time, money, and concern to learn every language that any of your patients might speak, go right ahead. I won't stop you, nor will I care. Don't automatically assume that the rest of us are ignorant fools that don't advocate or care for our patients simply because we choose to speak English in a country where English is the predominant language.
As another poster already stated, much of our extra time would be better spent gaining clinical knowledge that would better outcomes for all of our patients, even the English speaking ones that no one cares about.
I am sorry but do you all notice that the Europeans coming over here busted their butts learning English while the other ethnicities not from Europe come over here and expect us to accommodate them?
Funny how that happens. You think they would accommodate us if it was the other way around. Uh no.
I completely disagree with you on this. This is not only an issue of their healthcare. How about their day to day living. Just going out and running errands or the numerous other things that go on in your life. The bottom line is if you are going to live somewhere you need to adapt to the environment around you. I would not move to Mexico and expect them to adapt to me. I do not feel I need to take part of the responsibility to adapt to them. It is NOT a shortcoming of mine. If I choose to become fluent in spanish then so be it. It's not something I desire to do living in the US and yes learning another language does require effort on my part. I went to school to learn how to do nursing. Sorry, but my being a nurse has nothing to do with learning another language. It's bad enough we're supporting them and giving them free medical care.
Maybe I should include "how to speak English" in my teaching plans for these patients?
Ackeem, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN
381 Posts
I totally agree that pt's deserve the best care they can get from the nurses. But asking us to learn a new language is asking way too much. If a nurse happens to know spanish well fine, that works to the advantage of both the nurse and the pt, but I don't think its a priority for us to learn spanish or any other language than our own.