What do you think???

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Hi all,

I came across a situation the other day and was wondering if anyone else might have an opinion on this subject.

I am in nusing school and one of my classmates is from Korea. Now being a minority myself (im Japaneese) I am not trying to sound predjudiced...but she is a transfer student from Korea and has been in the US for a bit (that is what she told the class). Her english is not very good and she has a very hard time understanding the instructor, ie. she said "I not speak english well can you go slow or repeat things?" i say that as a direct qoute. I was wondering do any of you kind of have a problem with her going into nursing? I mean its great what she is doing but if she cant communicate efficiently with her patients do you think that compromises her patients well being, ie do you think she could misunderstand or not understand and make a mistake?

what do you guys think, i was a little worried, i thought to myself if she cant even understand our teacher that well then will she be able to understand and fully comprehend what the patients are saying?

i know her speaking is not "my" concern, i was just wondering what everyone else thought about this situation, ie. i thought we could discuss it or has anyone else ever come across this situation, i am not planning any course of action...i just firmly believe that someone should be fluent in english before they enter the health care field and deal with patients on a regular basis. It would be a shame if the langauge barrier prevented her from effectively communicating with her patients. I know i get frustrated sometimes when i enteract with people who cant understand me well, i can only imagine how frustrating it would be if i was extremely sick and couldnt communicate effectively with my nurse, i dunno just a thought, i realizeits not my place to say something and that its my instructors responsibility but I sometimes worry about "people slipping through the cracks" as someone else mentioned above.

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I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't have an opinon on the matter. I was just pointing out that instructors and supervisors have an obligation to make sure her abilities are up to par before letting her practice.

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I had a thought...where I live there are very large comunities of Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Nigerian, and many others...it is possible for people to get thru school and specialize within their communities where they are extremely valuable. At my school (BSN program) they strongly recommend special ESL classes for medical professions. However, we still have many people who have difficulty with English. I have seen many of them improve so much over the last three years! There is always the chance that if she can't communicate proficiently enough to write papers, communicate with instructors, nurses, and patients, and chart proficiently...she might be held back. I've seen that happen too...and like what was stated before, it isn't always ESL people who get held back!!

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I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't have an opinon on the matter. I was just pointing out that instructors and supervisors have an obligation to make sure her abilities are up to par before letting her practice.

oh i know you werent, i was just trying to say that the instructor should say something...i dont think she should be dismissed from the program just helped...someone should help her so that she is fluent in her english, our instructors dont seem to say anything, unless i just dont know about it. I think that eventually she would be great in the nursing field as we always need bilingual people! I just worry about her getting through clinicals not being so proficient.

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Galaxy,

Trying striking up conversations with your Korean classmate. The more she uses her speekaing skills in conversation, the better it will be.

Maybe she could teach you some Korean.

It is possible that she does not have enough native English speaking friends to help her improve her verbal skills.

Agape.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I did pre-reqs with a young girl who had recently immigrated from Russia. I and the rest of the class watched her and another Russian immigrant cheat their way through a year of science courses. I assumed she was a lazy student and couldn't believe it when she got into nursing school. During our first year I had a conversation with her about that year of pre-reqs we shared and she told me that she had understood very, very little of lecture because of the language barrier. Not a year later however she was 100% fluent and pulling scores in the 90s on her nursing exams... easily beating out others. She understands almost 100% of what is said to her (the odd word she doesn't is one that is technically specialized or an old cultural "saying") I'm still not sure how I feel about her being able to pass through some difficult classes with "assistance" (actually there's a part of me that still thinks poorly of her over it)... but I know now that she's certainly not doing that and is in fact holding her own extremely well. Moral of the story: give this gal time, her ability to comprehend and speak... ie communicate... in English is going to improve. The fact that she made it into your program and is pulling the grades required to stay show that she's understanding what's going on in her second language on paper, as time goes on her ability to understand as others speak and return the conversation herself will vastly improve.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

I've worked with MANY doctors who hailed from other countries who do not speak English well, and sometimes a few of them have given me cause to wonder in this regard, too. :uhoh21:

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yes, I am interested to see how she does in clinicals. I haven't known her long so we may still become friends, we'll see. I really would like to know some Korean.

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I think your concerns are valid. I remember when I was first getting my chronic dx's and my MD was foreign. OMG how frustrating for me and probably him too. What I didn't and don't get (I have since changed MD's) is he has been here for like 15yrs. I think he has all of the language he is going to get. It was more the culural looking down on women thing that caused me to change MD's than his language barriers but still if he is going to work in a predominately english speaking area get with the language already. Not meant to be rude but if I were going to be a nurse in a largly spanish speaking area I had darn well better get with there language and customs. Hopefully she will get by and be a safe care giver and then maybe go into an area that is largely her native. The US being the melting pot we definately need all languages and customs but we still need to allow them to get there while still providing safe care. Good Luck to your entire class.

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I think your concerns are valid. I remember when I was first getting my chronic dx's and my MD was foreign. OMG how frustrating for me and probably him too. What I didn't and don't get (I have since changed MD's) is he has been here for like 15yrs. I think he has all of the language he is going to get. It was more the culural looking down on women thing that caused me to change MD's than his language barriers but still if he is going to work in a predominately english speaking area get with the language already. Not meant to be rude but if I were going to be a nurse in a largly spanish speaking area I had darn well better get with there language and customs. Hopefully she will get by and be a safe care giver and then maybe go into an area that is largely her native. The US being the melting pot we definately need all languages and customs but we still need to allow them to get there while still providing safe care. Good Luck to your entire class.

Thanks GOod Luck to you too! and I agree, i have known drs like those too, it is frustrating...i agree, i, to have changed drs for that reason.

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Hopefully she will get better. In my unit, many of my patients are Mexican and speak only Spanish. I speak only a little Spanish, but am able to communicte with a few words and use other staff and family members as translators. You use the resources you have. The bottom line is to provide good nursing care.

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Specializes in OB.

When I went to school, I had a Chinese woman in my class who did not speak English very well, but was very smart. She finished among the top of our class. I also currently work with another Chinese gal who does not speak English perfectly, but is very bright. In fact, many of the women I work with speak English as their second language, but they are wonderful nurses. English is a hard language to grasp for anyone from a foreign country. I know a lot of people who know exactly what they want to say, but just can't say it in fluent English. Yet, I still understand them perfectly. Hopefully your classmate will come forward if she does not understand something and ask for assistance. And her English skills should improve in time with practice. galaxy781, perhaps you can become her friend and help her with her English and in exchange she can teach you a few things in Korean. :) Might be a fun thing for the both of you.

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