Specializes in Home Care, Primary care NP, QI, Nsg Adm.
I wonder how many of our colleagues and current nursing students have or had foreign instructors that were hard to understand. I hear this from friends of mine who teach in Universities.
One of the problems is that when the subject of hard-to-understand accents comes up, there is sometimes a cry of racism. There may indeed be people who will try to hide racist attitudes behind the accent problem, but many, many others just want to understand what is being said. If we can't talk about the practicalities of communicating with an accent for fear of being politically incorrect, the situation will not improve.
There is also the need to separate form (accent) from content (English proficiency). I'm sure there are practitioners who are quite capable in their language skills who are still difficult to understand because of the accent barrier. And there are those who are deficient in their grasp of English, but are more understandable. Obviously, someone who has difficulty with both form and content will be the most challenged (and challenging) of all!
If we could speak on a practical level, it would make sense to say that some people would increase their chances of being understood and delivering more effective patient care if they had instruction on how to decrease the accent barrier. We aren't talking elimination of accents or saying that having a thick accent is something to be ashamed of. This isn't pathology. It's just a fact of life that when you try to communicate in a language that is not your primary tongue, anyone from any culture would need to pay close attention to the sounds as well as the meanings.
Unfortunately, I fear that people in general have become so defensive about so many things that we can no longer state the obvious lest someone take offense.
Specializes in Postpartum, Antepartum, Psych., SDS, OR.
Patients are always going to be disgruntled over something. This is just another item to tack up on the complaint list. I have all the patience in the world for foreign nurses/physicians that are atleast attempting to speak English and I always try to do what I can if they need assistance communicating with gomers/inpatients/downtrodden. I find it extremely shameful however, that there are still some that refuse to learn our language yet expect an Amercian paycheck. I also find it inappropriate when these foreign physicans and/or nurses talk in any language other than English while at work.
Learn the language before leaving my home country would be the first thing on my agenda. Shouldn't that be a requirement before going to a country to work? Seems like a great idea.
Specializes in Home Care, Primary care NP, QI, Nsg Adm.
Where is the role of the recruiter in this? A non-English speaker would not be hired, at least logically, ethically and perhaps, legally speaking. The problem lies with those who place and hire these people. Nursing management and/or HR should be savvy enough to evaluate this, if not, management should be evaluated for competency as well.
I think your story seems altruisitc and admirable to some, especially foreign nurses. Remember that communication is key! If a patient feels that they cannot understand and cannot get some sort of repor with their nurse, they could and should request another nurse. Often they feel guilty about doing so, and do not want to hurt anyone's feelings. A family member of mine had very serious heart surgery, could not communicate with his foreign nurse. The nurse spoke very little english.My family member said" she doesn't understand what I am trying to tell her"! I witnessed this myself. The nurse kept changing an IV because the tape kept coming off. Literally he was poked 4 times in 2 hours. The IV was running fine. The tape was coming off as he was sweating, maybe r/t meds or room temp or stress of surgery. He also kept trying to joke with her and there was absolutely no sense of humor-maybe a difference in cultures and she did not understand the joke? In this case and at this hospital, most of the nurses were foreign. When another nurse was requested the reply was simply "we cannot honor your request". Therefore his experience was miserable.Really makes you think about a nurses impact on a patients life. He says "I will never go to that hospital again".
People need to be open to cultures more...I find a lot of cultures other than U.S to be more hospitable,cheerful and generally speaking more happy!
Funny how ironic this is,since we are a melting pot of mixed cultures....
It isn't about being open to cultures. It is about being able to UNDERSTAND your nurse, doc, whatever. I work with nurses who are foreign, but no one has problem understanding what they are saying.
I would have a problem if I had a nurse in which I couldn't understand a word out of their mouth.
We had a African nurse who was very difficult to understand. I had to talk to his patients many times because of the frustration. We had many patients who refused him as their nurse for this and other reasons not applicable to this thread.
Don't forget those who drive cars without being able to read street signs in English!
That is a huge issue in this area. There are many who can't even speak English and then they get a license and can't read the street signs. So if you want to drive in my mil's neighborhood, be very careful.
I am not saying this in any other way than persaonal observation over the years.
Obviously, I am aware that we live in a cultural melting pot. My point was that some people do not see things in the same way, like humor for example. I mean no disrespect towards anyone. I think there was a serious language barrier in this case, which resulted in an extremely frustrated patient. I thought the nurse in this case was very nice, but having a difficult time herself. Wish I could have helped her (and I tried) more. Any suggestions?:)
I thought we were supposed to be the patients' advocate. If the patient can't understand the nurse, then the nurse better start writing things down or get a translator to follow her around. Good grief, I'd complain, too. I think I'd get more tired of listening to the NURSES who complain about the patients' rightful complaints.
Another thing is when you try to give report to another unit and you get someone who can barely speak english much less understand it. It's so frustrating for me, I can only imagine how difficult it is for patients!!!!
The other thing, some accents sound like the person is being rude when they aren't which causes a lot of problems with staff and family.
Not to mention, but also could cause higher healthcare costs. If a nurse is always changing an IV that only needs to be taped, she could have tried coban. She is wasting time and supplies as well as discomfort to the patient. When giving report, increased time also costs money.Mainly this all falls back on all of us.
Saifudin
234 Posts
I wonder how many of our colleagues and current nursing students have or had foreign instructors that were hard to understand. I hear this from friends of mine who teach in Universities.