alan headbloom

A male's legal partner is his husband. A female's legal partner is her wife. "Spouse" would be simpler for forms if it doesn't matter the gender.

Thanks for the great feedback. Our team has gotten hold of a set of instructional handouts and DVDs (not cheap!) from the University of Toronto. (The Canadians seem to be leading on a host of cross-/inter- studies/initiatives.) From the half-dozen components I've been able to view so far, there are simulated conversations between about 8 male and female students, including a nursing student, a social work student, a family medicine resident, and a pharmacy student. Each segment is 3-8 minutes long and provides topics and examples of good and bad behavior to discuss. Our exploration continues. I'll be checking back with everyone as we progress.

Our interdisciplinary team is putting together materials and exercises to teach health science students Cross-Professional Competence (CPC): concepts of communicating between members of the health care team, awareness of roles of the various team members, and the dangers of role blurring. The goal is to make these future professionals aware of the roles and responsibilities of the other members: nursing, PT, dieticians, OT, radiology, PA's, speech/language, TR, social work, medicine, etc. and how they all (should) work together. How well do you communicate with professionals across your health care team? Do you have memories of training in this area that was effective? Horror stories of things that went terribly wrong in this arena? Articles or training videos on CPC that you'd recommend?

This is not true. There's not "a ton." There is one. Cmonkey left out one article (a), probably a typo. Just sayin'.

When my wife was in med school (in the 80s), they used to practice small procedures on classmates. She did more "personal" exams on her husband (at home), though.

While the U.S. population is currently 34% "minority" (non-Anglo), only 10% of U.S. nurses are non-Anglo. Until there is a better representation across the board, there will be lots of racial misunderstandings. And, of course, even after racial/ethnic equity is reached, that still won't guarantee that misinformed people won't say/do untoward or ignorant things. Sadly.

Multi, Be careful with self-study materials. You can learn phrases, but without a native-speaking coach, you won't know when to use your handful of expressions. Just because you can parrot a handful of phrases, doesn't guarantee you'll apply them in the correct situations. Language without context is not "communication." It's a tricky business. It sounds like you're looking for a direct study hours per salary unity compensation. As cited by others above, that won't happen unless you're very fluent. However, if you took time to study a few semesters, you could be of great help in the absence of any bilingual staff--kind of filling in till the reinforcements arrived. And it would also make you more sensitive to the difficulty which non-natives go through in their everyday lives. Again, no direct compensation for that, but "quality of life" isn't always about money, is it? One interesting benefit about being bilingual: Stroke patients come back with more cognitive functioning if they are bilingual because they have developed multiple neurological pathways. That's an interesting type of "health insurance"!

1. ALL of us have communication handicaps. Some of us use $10 words or jargon--over the heads of our audience. Others have incorrect grammar and spelling (skim the 200+ posts above for plentiful examples). Others have accents which represent Boston, Pittsburgh, 'Bama, Minnesnowta, Oklahoma, and L.A. Some of us are bad listeners (indifferent? multi-tasking and not paying attention? assume we already know what will be said?). Geezers among us are hard of hearing. Others use local slang which out-of-towners can't make out. An early poster admitted she's a low-talker. My sister's boyfriend is a LOUD-TALKER (talk about disconcerting!). Still others come from overseas and are working in their second or third language. I repeat: ALL of us have communication issues. 2. ALL of us are competing in the free market. Jobs are advertised, we apply, and we get them--or don't. We bring our total selves to the workplace. That includes warts and neuroses, addictions and language skills. If there is no job candidate better than us, then we become the front line and do our jobs the best we can. Of course, we can all strive to improve our work performance. For some, it's anger management. For others, communication training. 3. For the time being, I'd like to send all the villagers back home to put away their pitchforks and torches and then take a deep breath. Legislating which tongues can and cannot be spoken in the U.S. is not only antithetical to our diverse heritage, it's also contrary to the free enterprise system. Those who can't compete fully (based on skills, knowledge, communication, etc.) won't get good jobs. No need to bring the gummint into this mess. How about employer-sponsored training to address EVERYONE's handicaps? 4. International employees are a permanent part of our workplace and ALL of us (natives and foreigners, staff and patients) need to adapt to a 21st century community which no longer resembles an era when no one traveled outside the county, when everyone in town was born there, knew the local stories, and communicated the same tongue (except the low talkers, the LOUD-TALKERS, and the hard of hearing, the mumblers, the snobs, the illiterates, and the jargonists).

Morettia, Wow, what a scary experience for you. I'm glad it turned out okay for the patient. Why do you think the five Indian nurses weren't helping out with the code? Did they not understand the urgency of the situation? Are they new or undertrained? If so, that's a dangerous situation waiting to happen in the future. Sometimes laughter (especially in Asian cultures) is a sign of embarrassment, not of derision or mockery. If you now have a good relationship with this group, you may want to sit down with them and go over what happened and find out why they behaved the way they did. Not to level blame at anyone, but to find out what went wrong and how to avoid it down the road. Obviously, the behavior looked "bad." My assumption is that most nurses, foreign or American, truly wish to help--not harm--patients. So, we need to get to the bottom of what's going on. Otherwise, we just label those committing the behavior as "wrong," "bad," or "those lazy, gossipy, good-for-nothing, job-sponging, so-and-so foreigners." And that creates a Them vs. Us mindset which will just fester and lead to more distrust and accusation. It's not easy working with people who aren't from our tribe. Fear and miscommunication abound. And, without proactive intervention, the vicious circle continues. Good luck in making your workplace more communicative and supportive, Alan

I think the reason for the strongly visceral reaction--in both the case of nursing and golf--is that monolingual Americans feel threatened and intimidated. [strike up the theme from Twilight Zone.] "Danger. Danger. People speaking a language I don't understand." Tribalism (xenophobia) is a common human response. It's not the most generous one available, however. How do we rise above it? That's our challenge to solve.

Dear Hoosier, I do not represent employment agencies though I do make my living training people from all sides of cultural difference how to get along. I absolutely agree with you that communication is best undertaken when both caregiver and care-receiver have common experiences and understanding. However, US nursing programs are not turning out enough graduates. I would love it that they did. But they currently don't. In the mean time, sick Americans need to be cared for. Who's going to do it? Non-trained US citizens (by virtue of their passports) or trained non-citizens because they have the chutzpah to pick up and move to a place where xenophobes try to keep them out? It's a numbers game, and we need to keep staffing up. If you have a way to get more American nurses into American hospitals, I'm all ears. Alan

Where are the Foreign Nurses? by Carl Shusterman Any topic involving immigration is sure to spark a debate these days - including the topic of foreign-trained nurses. Do foreign-trained nurses depress the wages of U.S. nurses? Since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that less than four percent of all nurses in the U.S. are foreign trained, it is hard to imagine their presence would have much effect on wages one way or another. Indeed, annual RN wages climbed 14% from 2000 to 2004, from an average of $46,782 to $57,755 according to HHS, and most indicators suggest that wages have continued to rise since then. Do foreign-trained nurses displace U.S. nurses? Given a national hospital nurse vacancy rate of over 8%, as reported by the American Hospital Association, that doesn't seem likely. And, given projections that the U.S. will be anywhere from 340,000 to one million nurses short by the year 2020, it seems improbable that foreign nurses will displace U.S. nurses any time in the near future. What about the "brain-drain?" By recruiting foreign trained nurses, are we undercutting medical services in countries where the need for medical professionals is.... (for the rest of the article, go to http://www.recruitingtrends.com/)

So now the English-Only forces are gaining momentum: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/28/ap5369551.html LPGA's English-only policy draws criticism By DOUG FERGUSON 08.28.08 NORTON, Mass. - Imagine what could have happened to Angel Cabrera if he belonged to a tour that required its players to speak English. A powerful Argentine who rose from an impoverished childhood, he won the U.S. Open last year at Oakmont by holding off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. In the hours after the trophy presentation, Cabrera made his way through a maze of media interviews in Spanish with an interpreter at his side. Under a new LPGA Tour policy effective next year, Cabrera might have been suspended. Or, he might not have played at all if an official on that tour deemed he was ineffective in English. "You don't have to speak English to play golf," Cabrera said Thursday in Spanish, joining a chorus of male players perplexed by the LPGA Tour's decision to be punish women golfers for not speaking English in pro-ams, trophy presentations and media interviews.... (for more, click on link)

Dear Kiwi Pointer Sister, Lots to love about being here. Like everywhere, there are good aspects and bad. It's all a balancing act. Welcome aboard this very diverse, very outspoken ship! And you don't have to tell us which rowing/sailing/swimming teams you are privately cheering for during the Beijing games! ;-) (Old ties run deep!) Alan

For me, the important part of this discussion is about numerical practicality, health care standards, and equity. If it descends into a conversation of keeping out "those dirty, smelly foreigners," then we need to re-examine our motives and our fears. I just started reading a useful looking book by Mark Berreby called, "Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind" (2005). If any of you have read it, maybe you could comment. It talks about the neuro-psychological basis for flocking together with similarly-feathered birds and, by extension, about racism and exclusion. Alan