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 ICU, Home Health, Camp, Travel, L&D.
Well, here's an entitlement for you: I'm entitled to come to work and be treated with dignity and respect, and so is the OP. And in a perfect world, that might even happen.
In a perfect world, everyone is entitled to the highest quality healthcare provided in a language specific environment. But that doesn't always happen, either. I get that the pts are often in pain/sick/angry/confused, and I do speak Spanish, French, and Italian (ok...enough Italian to get by), but that doesn't cut it for my Southeast Asian patients, now does it?
To me, this is like the unrealistic expectation of "0" pain after a CS...
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.....
i think we as nurses excuse far too much because someone is sick, scared or stressed. there is no excuse for slamming the nurse, striking the cna or shooting the doctor. no excuse.
although i cannot help but wonder if the patient did understand english but wouldn't admit to it for some reason. my spanish speaking mother-in-law's command of the english language used to be directly proportional to how much she liked what she was hearing. (now, sadly, it's gone, but that's dementia which excuses a lot of things.)
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.
all great reasons why we ought to legislate english as our national language.
i respectfully disagree with you -- there is no reason for everyone in the united states to learn to speak spanish just because the spanish speakers wish to live here without speaking our language. if i went to spain, mexico or latin america, i'd expect to speak spanish. it's an entitled attitude to expect to immigrate to a country and have it's citizens learn your language to speak to you.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i think health care providers should learn spanish.why? because it is the second most common language in the world.
and i think if you're going to be a health care provider in an english speaking country you ought to do your best to communicated adequately in english.
My foreign language of choice is Latin. So if any priests or cardinals stop by perhaps I can help. I also am semi proficient in French as we had relatives in Biloxi who spoke a lot of Cajun slang. My Spanish is very limited as most of our Hispanics living here came from Guatemala and theirdialect is different, but all know English fairly well. We have a good time with English words that mean something different in Spanish-at least MY form of Spanish. :)
When my grandparents immigrated from the former Czechoslovakia they had already been practicing English so they could arrive at Ellis Island and feel American. Grandpa S. had NO accent by the time he was 10 or so. My friend was born in Germany. She arrived in the US at age 16. She now has more of a Southern dialect than I have.
I hate to agree that the language should be legislated but if it isn't that's a mighty slippery slope that may lead to dozens of nationalities insisting their language be included in the mandatory category.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
couldn't have said it better myself.
redhead_girl98
"nooooo, they understand the value of speaking english. just as some understand the value of speaking spanish in the us. however, to insist upon someone speaking spanish in america just because you do is pretty obnoxious if you ask me."
seems like the sense of language entitlement goes both ways. i'm sorry, but if the op is not native american, he is as much of a foreigner as his patient.
we all have various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. getting up in arms about who speaks what, etc, just leads to alienation and polarization of different groups. we are here to help people who are hurt and scared, among many other things. people say things that may offend us, but i'd like to think that we are all capable of understanding that people do this when they are scared. yeah, sometimes they do it because they are just total a**hats, but in this case, sounds like she was frustrated. she's hospitalized, has a room full of kids running around, and is trying to communicate her concerns through her grandson. i'd be frustrated too. bottom line is, we all choose our reactions. and as nurses, i would hope that we could use our critical thinking to conclude why a patient would say something like this, and then do what we can to help her.
a had a nursing instructor last semester tell us "you are a nurse. when you are working, you are not an age, a gender, a religion, or a race. you are a nurse. it is not about you, it is about your patient".
i'm part kickapoo. my ancesters are from here. of course, they may have walked across the frozen ocean from mongolia eons ago, so maybe we should all be speaking mongol. but wait -- the romans conquered most of the known world at one time -- maybe we should all be speaking italian. hold on a moment -- didn't the vikings conquer most of europe at one time? anyone here speak norwegian?
i have ancesters from germany and france -- they learned to speak english when they arrived because english was the predominate language and has been for centuries.
i don't think the original poster was insensitive about her spanish speaking patient -- i think the patient had an entitled and sensitive attitude. yes, people who are sick, stressed or scared act like total jerks. and then rather than swallow our anger and burn a hole in our stomachs, some of us come on allnurses.com and vent about it to other professionals who presumably understand.
My co-worker insisted that the United States IS NOT ALLOWED to own any islands ! Then to prove her point she mentioned Cuba and .... Hawaii ! Apparently Japan owns Hawaii but we are allowed to travel there without a passport. True story.
Wow! I wonder what country owns Manhattan? I'm glad I don't need my passport there either!
but whay I think is REALLY REALLY RUDE... is when a foreign speaking nurse speaks Enlgish with an accent and then the patient asks for a nurse who speaks Enlgish!!!!!!!! OMG! that is sooooo bad too!!!
i live in south texas where the majority of the population is hispanic. i work where spanish is spoken predominantly and my coworkers are more comfortable speaking spanish than english. i have picked up more spanish in the last few years than i ever did in school. most of my coworkers don't know that i know spanish as well as i do. i do agree with most that english should be learned when someone immigrates here. now i have found out that a lot of people who do speak spanish do know and understand english very well and just don't want to speak it. i have seen that sense of entitlement that most of you have talked about here and it does nothing but irritate me to no end. that's why i have absolutely no problem speaking to someone in english who speaks spanish back to me.
I feel that as nurses we should not feel compelled, obligated, or pressured to learn Spanish in order to be able to communicate to those who speak it (our patients). I feel like the rationale would be : "Well they should learn English not us learn Spanish". I most certainly want my future children to be raised speaking Spanish because it would give them a better advantage in the future. I speak English and Hebrew because my parents taught me Hebrew. I was born here in New York and my parents moved here 30 years ago. Let me tell you Hebrew is no where near english! Any linguist will tell you that learning English from a native tongue or Hebrew is much more difficult than learning english from a nataive tongue of Spanish! And guess what my parents learned English! it took them a few years and alot of effort but they did it! So for those who speak spanish nativley and have lived here for years and still cannot speak english? its because they have no desire to learn the language native to the country they now live in.....a bit ridiculous dont you think? I mean if I was to move, work, live, in lets say...France...I would have to learn French right? or how about Peru I would have to learn english or what about Russia I would have to learn Russian right? I think the pressure should be taken off those in the medical field...and those who are Americans to learn Spanish and the pressure needs to be those who speak only Spanish and live in this country to learn ENGLISH! That makes sense right?
I also think that jobs that advertise: "Bi-lingual -spanish needed" should be considered discrimination!! Because they do not want to hire you if you dont speak Spanish-thats not fair! Although there is no "Official" language in America (probably because our four fathers -washington, frankinlin, adams, jefferson ect.. did not make it official because it was pure common sense back then that everyone spoke english) we all know the official "unofficial" language is Eniglish- its on the signs on the highways/street and English is taught I believe in every public school in this country from pre-k to highschool.
My present client has a certain expression on her face when she speaks several sentences in her language, knowing I don't understand everything she states. When she wants to dismiss me, she quickly says she doesn't understand, looks away, and starts speaking her language. I'm getting fed up with it. Really fed up.
tablefor9, RN
299 Posts
Well, here's an entitlement for you: I'm entitled to come to work and be treated with dignity and respect, and so is the OP. And in a perfect world, that might even happen.
In a perfect world, everyone is entitled to the highest quality healthcare provided in a language specific environment. But that doesn't always happen, either. I get that the pts are often in pain/sick/angry/confused, and I do speak Spanish, French, and Italian (ok...enough Italian to get by), but that doesn't cut it for my Southeast Asian patients, now does it?
To me, this is like the unrealistic expectation of "0" pain after a CS...