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?
That's pretty much it. If immigrants come over to this country and don't want to learn the dominant language, and they do not like that people won't learn their own, then they should go back to their own country. Expecting your regular working-class citizens here to bend over backwards to learn a foreign language, when these immigrants make no effort to learn English, is just asinine, and imo offensive.
Again, the evidence disagrees with you. Even with the availability of language lines, patients are safer when cared for by staff who are able to communicate directly and frequently, even at an amateur level. It is most definitely not outside your potential scope of practice; your scope of practice is any skill that you have learned and maintained that is not expressly prohibited, and as long as you are over 18, you can translate according to both my hospital policy and state law.
Maybe that's how it is in your state and at your hospital, but where I work, any joe-blow off the street who is over 18 cannot be considered a translator, even if they are a native speaking Hispanic. Family members are verboten as well. Our interpretors have to be certified medical translators ...
This has also been true every place I've worked ... As another poster mentioned upstream, even if I spoke conversational Spanish (or any other language) reasonably well, I would not take on the legal liability of translating anything significant or important in a healthcare setting. There are people who are specifically prepared and certified to do this, and, IMHO, it is best left to them.
I have used the tattered remnants of my two years of "schoolgirl French" from my first time around in college at work a few times in the past, but only on a strictly conversational basis. The French individuals in those situations (hospitalized after an accident while visiting in the US) did their best to communicate with us in English. They were delighted to encounter someone who could make polite chit-chat with them in French, but certainly did not expect the individuals caring for them to speak French.
I think you may be confusing someone who is allowed to translate and a certified medical translator, which are two different things and have different requirements placed on them. For initial assessments and to obtain consent, yes a certified medical translator is required. To ask "do you need anything", you aren't required to use a certified medical translator, only someone over 18. I've checked a few other states and haven't found another state where this rule isn't consistent.
And if the person "need something" and in addition gives you a long and very rapid discourse about that, then what? Misunderstanding what the person needs could result in a medication error...hence just a few phrases of Spanish knowledge won't work. And I wasn't confusing anything.
And if the person "need something" and in addition gives you a long and very rapid discourse about that, then what? Misunderstanding what the person needs could result in a medication error...hence just a few phrases of Spanish knowledge won't work. And I wasn't confusing anything.
If you don't understand their response then use the language line. If they say "agua", then they probably want some water, not too complicated. You never translate while caring for a patient?
Do you really think there are as many english speaking patients in Peru as there are Spanish speaking patients in the US?QUOTE]
Not the point. Someone who goes to another country should not realistically expect the people who have always lived there to be responsible for easing the problems presented by their sudden (or not so sudden) appearance.
This has also been true every place I've worked ... As another poster mentioned upstream, even if I spoke conversational Spanish (or any other language) reasonably well, I would not take on the legal liability of translating anything significant or important in a healthcare setting. There are people who are specifically prepared and certified to do this, and, IMHO, it is best left to them.
I have used the tattered remnants of my two years of "schoolgirl French" from my first time around in college at work a few times in the past, but only on a strictly conversational basis. The French individuals in those situations (hospitalized after an accident while visiting in the US) did their best to communicate with us in English. They were delighted to encounter someone who could make polite chit-chat with them in French, but certainly did not expect the individuals caring for them to speak French.
Again, you are referring to a certified medical translator, which is not the same as someone allowed to translate for the patient in situations where a certified medical translator is indicated; two different things.
If you don't understand their response then use the language line. If they say "agua", then they probably want some water, not too complicated. You never translate while caring for a patient?
Exactly, a simple "I don't understand" in the patients language of choice (provided you know it, of course) should forestall any further lengthy explanations.
Even with the availability of language lines, patients are safer when cared for by staff who are able to communicate directly and frequently, even at an amateur level.
Then they would be safer staying in their own country where it is guaranteed that their healthcare providers speak their language. That's the risk they take being in a country and not learning the primary language.
Exactly, a simple "I don't understand" in the patients language of choice (provided you know it, of course) should forestall any further lengthy explanations.
With an added, "in English, please." I find that many Hispanic women (and I work with women) know far more English that they will admit.....but if encouraged a little... I guess if you can get the other person to do the hard work, why not? And we buy into that enabling mentality.
With an added, "in English, please." I find that many Hispanic women (and I work with women) know far more English that they will admit.....but if encouraged a little... I guess if you can get the other person to do the hard work, why not? And we buy into that enabling mentality.
I've noticed that happens a lot. I'm in retail until I graduate so I can eat, and man, it's amazing how quickly people learn English when you play dumb.
T It appears for some nurses, they may be willing to learn how to better care for the bariatric patient, but not the Spanish speaking patient because they are, for instance, "lazy". It's hard to tell why a nurse would make the effort for one patient, but not the other, except the obvious. (The Spanish speaking patients I deal with are by far the least lazy people I have ever met).
I don't think anyone is advocating providing less then stellar care to persons who do not speak English.
DarkBluePhoenix
1,867 Posts
More kudos!!!!