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?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
above all, i have to say i appreciate these posts as a general survey of the misunderstandings of basic american history, level of xenophobia, and lack of understanding and caring for patients that run through our society.
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.
the original poster was objecting to the notion that she needed to learn a foreign language to work in her own country and to accomodate folks who didn't think they ought to bother to learn the language of the country they were in. i'm sure if the op's patient had been gracious about at least attempting to say "please" or "thank you' or "yes" or "no" in english and had not made the entitled content, the poster would not have been venting. there's nothing xenophobic about objecting to being verbally abused . . . in any language!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i never said any such thing. bringing in a family member to translate for her is an attempt to communicate in english, no? in my first post on here, i stated that she was obviously frustrated in her situation and was speaking, to her son and not the nurse mind you, from that place of frustration. i stated that i believe it is our job as nurses to not take such things personally, and to do what we can to provide comfort to our patients, as is our role.
not a hard concept to understand... or at least i thought. it's kind of the focus of nursing fundamentals. anyone ever heard of that?
this lack of support for your fellow nurses is what a lot of folks refer to as "nurses eating their xxxxx" or "mean, nasty nurses" or "throwing each other under the bus." i hope you weren't about to complain about any of the above. if you cannot support a nurse who is venting about something that was obviously inappropriate, you don't get it. as nurses, we aren't saints. nor should we be.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
how do we know that she hasn't attempted to learn, and brought her son in to help because english is known as the most difficult language to learn? or because she doesn't feel that her skills are adequate to communicate something as serious as her health? it's not like she's ordering a burger somewhere.
there are a lot of assumptions running throughout this thread, and it's disheartening to learn that people don't make a little more effort to understand where their patients are coming from when they make such statements.
again, i think nurses bend over backward to accomate patients -- who don't seem to do anything much to meet us halfway, even when it comes to speaking our language in our country. as humans, we get to be offended about that and we get to vent about it. you're coming across as increasingly self-righteous. i hope that isn't your intent.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
it's not unreasonable to expect nurses to learn spanish and making that requirement is not unheard of. my nursing program was about as from from mexico as you can get, yet one of the requirements for entry into the program was a minimum of 2 years of hs/college spanish and to pass a spanish placement test if you had not taken any spanish in more than 5 years.
i realize there are plenty of enthusiastically ethnocentric people in this country, but i am a little surprised that so many are nurses. the number of posters who referred to "our language" and the use of the term "homogenization" as a basic american value displays a level of ignorance about what america is that is surprising for a group of nurses. if you think that by definition americans can be different, but not too different, then i'm not sure you necessarily have a better grasp of what it means to be american than any immigrant does.
i think it is unreasonable to expect nurses to learn spanish to work in the us. why not learn urdu or swahili or french or vietnamese? why just spanish? the reason is that the spanish speaking folks are the ones who refuse to learn english -- everyone else seems to learn english or at least attempt to. it is not ethnocentric to attempt to provide the best care to everyone, not just to the english speakers and spanish speakers. i'm surprised at the level of ignorance on the part of so many who assume that spanish is the only foreign language spoken in the us, or perhaps just that spanish-speakers are the only ones who should be accomodated.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i'm confused, are you saying that as a nurse you don't need to make any attempts to make your patients more comfortable if they are scared?
you're not confused. you're just trying to stir something up. what i said was i don't need to learn to speak spanish to make some patients more comfortable. nor should they expect me to. nor should you.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i don't believe it has anything to do with us being "ethnocentric".
i honestly do not feel superior to anyone...anyone.
relative to the topic of this thread, i maintain the pt was indeed, arrogant and imperious.
had that pt been american, and expressed the very same sentiment in a hospital in italy, i would have said the very same thing.
i cannot speak for anyone else, but if i'm going to be truthful with myself, it gets very old (and expensive!!) to pay for illegal immigrants healthcare, welfare, food and overall living expenses.
i'm not saying that this particular pt was illegal, but i am making that association...
between the ubiquitous sense of entitlement that seems to accompany many of those folks, and those who choose to live in a generous country, yet choose not to learn the language.
so, i do think that some posters are reacting to the larger mentality of, 'what can you do for me?' (race, irrelevant)
it's not about ethnocentricity.
it's about seeing the bigger picture for what it is...and what it's not.
you just don't reside in a country (legal or illegal), reap any/all benefits, and snub their language.
i don't do well with rude, presumptuous, and ungrateful.
but that's me.
leslie
i have a major problem with this post -- the site only allows me to give it one "kudos"!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.
and i expect they'd be the very first to complain that "nurses eat their young" when they can't get along with their co-workers.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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 think it is unreasonable to expect nurses to learn spanish to work in the us. why not learn urdu or swahili or french or vietnamese? why just spanish? the reason is that the spanish speaking folks are the ones who refuse to learn english -- everyone else seems to learn english or at least attempt to. it is not ethnocentric to attempt to provide the best care to everyone, not just to the english speakers and spanish speakers. i'm surprised at the level of ignorance on the part of so many who assume that spanish is the only foreign language spoken in the us, or perhaps just that spanish-speakers are the only ones who should be accomodated.
you're correct that spanish isn't the only other language spoken in the us, but it is by far the most common: 11% of the us claims spanish as their primary language, while all other languages combined into a single category still only represents 7%. where i live we have both a large seasonal spanish speaking population, as well as a russian population, and i hope to learn more russian as i get the opportunity.
as a nurse, it is our responsibility to assess the needs of our patients, which includes communication barriers. if you had a patient with a condition you weren't very familiar with, you'd try and learn more about it in order to provide better care for your patient, particularly if you could expect to have many more patient with same condition. the same principle applies to communication barriers; better understanding of disease processes=better care, and better communication=better care. more patients with the same problem=more return on your investment for having a better understanding of that problem.
Your sarcasm radar needs a tune-up. My point was we don't hold it against poor people that they can't afford healthier food.
Your assumption was that poorer people do not eat healthy food. That is a stereotype. SOME healthy food may be more expensive, but that does not mean that it all is, nor does it mean that all people that are "poorer" eat only processed junk. It is entirely possible to eat healthy on a budget, and people do (and CAN) do it. Sarcasm had nothing to do with anything (and my radar is perfectly tuned, thank you).
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
my family and friends are of hispanic too but i am sorry, it just so happens that that group in particular ( unfortunately) does this all the time. and again unfortunately stereotypes exist because most are true to an extent. i have only had this problem with this particular group. maybe their more vocal about it than other ethnicities? i don't know. the point is. english is this countries language whether its "official" or not. it is what it is.
by the way, anyone's saying we need to learn spanish for our patients, ha let's see that work when let sat oh the chinese get wind of it and complain that we should learn chinese for our patients. then the french come over here etc... is it fair? no. and personally i think that if you are gonna come here to live, i don't think you should drive or vote until you learn enough english. in my opinion. it's works for everyone. but whatever this counties lacking attitude will be our downfall eventually.
you can't make everyone happy. bottom line.
my family and many of my friends are of hispanic origin as well. because of that, i have frequently witnessed the behaviors discussed and attributed to spanish speakers. i have never witnessed it with other groups -- not with family, friends or patients who came from the phillipines, italy, france, nigeria, kenya, viet nam, hong kong, taiwan, germany, poland, czech republic, samoa, russia, georgia (we're talking different decades here) or any other place. just hispanics.
if i were to learn a second language, it would not be spanish. dh and i plan to travel, and spanish is his native language. if we're in a spanish speaking country, he can translate for both of us. i think i'm going to learn french.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
the original poster was objecting to the notion that she needed to learn a foreign language to work in her own country and to accomodate folks who didn't think they ought to bother to learn the language of the country they were in. i'm sure if the op's patient had been gracious about at least attempting to say "please" or "thank you' or "yes" or "no" in english and had not made the entitled content, the poster would not have been venting. there's nothing xenophobic about objecting to being verbally abused . . . in any language!