Second languages? Third? Or more?

In some areas of the country you would definetly be a commidity if you were fluent in Spanish. On ocassion I have even seen job listings for bilingual nurses. The schooldthat I graduated from offered a medical Spanish course. You might want to check into that as well. If you can handle the course load it sounds like a good idea.

I took a year of Spanish in high school about 25 years ago, and I'm married to a Spanish teacher. I recently bought a book "Spanish for Health Care Professionals," and with my measly previous experience, I can get by with a basic assessment and some basic instructions (like, call me if you need pain medication or help to the bathroom, that sort of thing). I think if you can take a semester or two of Spanish, that would be so helpful.

It depends on where you are, though; there might be other languages that are predominant in your area. Spanish is usually a safe bet, though.

All my Spanish speaking pts thus far have been sweet as pie, and they don't expect me to be fluent in Spanish. They are so appreciative that I attempt to say my 10 phrases in Spanish, and are very forgiving of my accent and errors. It's been very helpful to have this extremely basic set of phrases; I can't imagine functioning now without my miniscule Spanish. I use it a lot.

I took the Spanish for Health Professionals in NS and used the set of CDs that were extra.

But my friend is babblefish.com

I live in Miami but I'm not from here. The school I'm attending it's like an unrealistic bubble where everyone speaks english but I know when i graduate in a year I will struggle to communicate with Spanish speaking pts. I've taken spanish but unless you are forced to use it it's tough but I would definitley suggest taking a few spanish classes and those medical spanish classes sound excellent I'll have to look into them!

But my friend is babblefish.com

Definitely take some Spanish. You will encounter it more often than not than any other language. I wish I knew more. The only spanish I know is from being stationed in Puerto Rico and then it is only swearing and medical terminology, not exactly conducive to having a normal conversation!:) Good luck.

In NZL our native populace, Maoris, a lot more of them and society as a whole are beginning to speak Te Reo (the Maori Language). I've also been in situtations where knowing Mandarin, Spanish and even Arabic would have been helpful. So I'm looking into taking classes in such.

I've found my piddly bit of Latin knowledge is very good for understanding medical jargon.

I would think it would depend where you work and the population you serve. I have noticed though, that you can't go wrong with Spanish.

Where you live now or where you are planning to live to practice nursing would determine what language would be most helpful. Since Spanish is the most widely spoken second language in America, I'm sure you couldnt go wrong with that. I graduated from nursing school a year ago with no Spanish background, and eight months later moved to El Paso (where speaking Spanish is pretty manditory) and volunteer with an orphange in Juarez. I wish now that I had taken Spanish during my prereqs. However, I find that being around the language daily, I'm really starting to pick it up. If you're really serious about learning the language an educational trip to a Spanish-speaking country would deffinately be helpful.

On another note, the community hospital back in Dallas paid bilingual staff and extra $0.50 an hour. The downside is that the bilingual staff was constantly being pulled of their jobs to translate for someone else.

All in all, I think that experiencing other cultures and learning different languages only makes you a better, more compassionate, more well rounded person and would deffinately recommend it :) I know that I now have a huge respect for people who moved to this country and had to learn English!

Thanks for all the replies.

I took three years of Spanish in high school, so I know all the basic phrases (but have forgotten a lot as well). Currently enrolled in Spanish 1 (which is pretty much Elementary Spanish -- a recap of all three years in high school). If my schedule allows it, I'll continue on to Spanish 2, 3, and 4. Probably take another language on the way, but we'll see how my school schedule works out.

Thanks again for all the replies. :)