People in healthcare should speak Spanish, she said

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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 OB/GYN, Emergency.

Ah, that's a bold statement she made. I'm sure that foreign patients in areas of the country where Hispanics aren't the primary minority would appreciate the same thing, but we can't speak everything!

About 60-70% of my patients speak only Spanish. As someone who does speak Spanish, nothing peeves me more than when I speak to a patient in her language, but she has already tuned me out so much because I'm blonde/blue that she says "uhhh... someone here speak Spanish?" Last I checked, "que es su fecha de naciemento" and "what's your birthday" don't sound remotely alike, so I'm not sure what the confusion is. :)

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Specializes in MDS/Office.
You should have told her that it would make more sense for her to learn English, esp. since she is the one that left her native-Spanish speaking country to move here. Of course hospitals have some responsibility to assist patients with a language barrier, but that is different from a patient suggesting that any caregivers in the US should speak what is still a "foreign" language. Unless some Spanish-speaking country has beaten us in a war that I'm not aware of lol.

I lived my whole life in a state that has been taken over by "those Foreigners " and have heard this same tired argument many times. Your comment about "entitled attitude" amazes me. Let me get this straight ; a sick 78 year-old hospitalized patient has an entitled attitude and you feel insulted because they don't speak english ???? How do you think she feels when her family leaves at night and she can't communicate with her nurse ? Do you think she might be scared ? She might not understand english but a smile is universal. Maybe you could make a difference - isn't that what nurses are supposed to do ?

Just because someone is sick, scared or whatever.....does NOT excuse slamming the Nurse because of a language barrier.....

If I choose to go live in another Country, it is MY Responsibility to learn the primary language..... :rolleyes:

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What's the difference between Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French — Swedish, you ask? If you happen to be in the United States, it means that all but Spanish don't count for much, but Spanish-speakers constitute a huge group. Most of these people are NOT illegals, either. Someof them have families which have lived in the western U.S. from the time it was snatched from the Mexicans in the middle of the 19th century.

The "English-only" entitled attitude on this thread is disturbing.

I consider the opposite to be true. A group of people has decided to leave their country and become American citizens, but have resisted homogenization into the American culture and language. This could be considered offensive, because when in Rome... The reality is, if you so dislike your own country so much that you choose to leave it, then it is somewhat your duty to homogenize into the culture of the new country you have moved to. Most places do not ask a whole lot for citizenship = Learn the language, Pay your taxes, and don't commit crimes. Apparently those simple requests are too much for many immigrants.

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Okay, I was reminded of a joke.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?

Trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks only one language?

American.

(No offense to anyone. It's only a joke!!)

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I lived my whole life in a state that has been taken over by "those Foreigners " and have heard this same tired argument many times. Your comment about "entitled attitude" amazes me. Let me get this straight ; a sick 78 year-old hospitalized patient has an entitled attitude and you feel insulted because they don't speak english ???? How do you think she feels when her family leaves at night and she can't communicate with her nurse ? Do you think she might be scared ? She might not understand english but a smile is universal. Maybe you could make a difference - isn't that what nurses are supposed to do ?

I'm not insulted that she doesn't speak English. I'm insulted by her entitled attitude. My parents' second language is English. They came to this country in their 20s and learned English. I am not naive when it comes to cultural barriers. I work at a large teaching hospital in a big city and have many patients who don't speak English. Many of them are lovely and we all try our best to use our resources to communicate with one another. Of course patients in the hospital are scared, but that doesn't give them the right to be rude, insulting, and demanding to the hospital staff. I try my best to make a difference, but some people don't even attempt to make the effort to help themselves.

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I could see the benefit that being multilingual would be in providing more culturally sensitive care, no matter whether you are in a rural area or a big metropolis.

I work in a clinic where knowledge of a second language has helped me to provide patient care and communication that would have otherwise been more difficult to provide.

Cheers to the language arts! I would have taken a language requirement in nursing school any day over one of the many other requirements courses we had to take for the BSN. =P

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Specializes in LTC, OB, psych.
I consider the opposite to be true. A group of people has decided to leave their country and become American citizens, but have resisted homogenization into the American culture and language. This could be considered offensive I suppose, because when in Rome...

Ordinarily I might agree with you. After all, my people got off the boat over 100 years ago and while they preserved their languages among themselves, they spoke English well when they had to. But the difference with Spanish is that thatere are whole swatches of America where English is an afterthought and Spanish rules. Just stand in a bus station in San Antonio, for instance. The English-only speaker is in trouble, there. Same for Miami, etc. Spanish is more than an immigrant tongue. It is a major working language of the United States, and it will mean that more of us will have to become competent in it.

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The reality is, if you so dislike your own country so much that you choose to leave it, then it is somewhat your duty to homogenize into the culture of the new country you have moved to. Most places do not ask a whole lot for citizenship = Learn the language, Pay your taxes, and don't commit crimes. Apparently those simple requests are too much for many immigrants.

Apparently those requests were too much for us, as well. I don't see very many of us speaking any Native American languages and I do remember hearing about some unsavory business concerning smallpox blankets and something about a Trail of Tears.

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Cheers to the language arts! I would have taken a language requirement in nursing school any day over one of the many other requirements courses we had to take for the BSN. =P

I agree! :)

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Living on the Southwest border (native New Englander, aayut), I've learned enough Spanish to order food, to cuss back at the locals, and get around triaging in Spanish. Fluent? far from it. The Europeans who settled here spoke English, Spanish, French. The quickest way to go curbside surgery here is to say "Columbus discovered America" as it's the ultimate insult to the many flourishing cultures that were already here. America has no specified national language and IMHO should never do so. How many of us speak Cherokee, Sioux, Navajo, Paiute, Algonquin, etc?

In the immortal words of the comedian Pat Paulsen in his circa 1970 run for president, "I believe all of Americas current problems can be traced back to the lax immigration policies of the Native Americans."

Just hoping to put some perspective on it all.

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I saw this coming for a long time. To become employed, some healthcare facilities flat out REQUIRE that you speak another language.

The nursing programs might as well start pushing for students to start learning spanish and or any other foreign languages because eventually healthcare (amongst others) will demand it. If my class schedule would have permitted, I would have taken it myself as I'm positive it'll come in handy in my near future.

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I think health care providers should learn Spanish.Why? Because it is the second most common language in the world.

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