Being a non spanish speaking nurse in NM?? (home, live)

[tecpatl]

You shouldn't have a problem, as you'll be working with a lot of bilingual people. Couldn't hurt to learn some Spanish though.... Good luck and welcome.

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by tecpatl

... Couldn't hurt to learn some Spanish though....

I'm going to pick at your nits here and rephrase that:

It is always helpful to learn some Spanish.

-o- not because you will find communication easier, but ...

... because learning anything new is good for your brain.

Learning ( new ) Spanish is better than learning how the
judges react in Dancing With The Stars or whatever that
other "Dance" show is called.

It's a fact of life that knowing some Spanish is practical in
this part of the world. Just knowing what Paseo del Norte
or Escudilla mean makes life better for me. So does knowing
how to pronounce it correctly.

[tecpatl]

my nits are on vacation...but my mind is workin' overtime..

[GregW]

Why would you live in New Mexico and not want to learn some Spanish?

[ajzjmsmom]

[quote=loborick;11513951]Thank you. It drives me crazy when people ask a question about speaking Spanish. This is the United States. If you moved to New York or LA you'd probably have more spanish speaking patients than here.[/quote]

This is so true, we live in NM but right now are on temporary assignment in the DC area, when we got here I told my husband I hadn't heard this much spanish since I left Texas 9 yrs ago. I very rarely hear spanish where I live in NM.

[Hombre57]

Originally Posted by Melissa E

Hey, we were orginally really wanting to move to Oregon, but we are losing interest since I can't find a job there (for like a year now). My boyfriend is really interested in moving to Las Cruces since he has family there. He is looking into engineering programs there. The only thing holding me back is that I am really worried about trying to do my job as an RN if I possibly get bunches of patients who speak no English. I know here in MO I very rarely will get a non English speaking patient, but when I do it makes my job so much harder and more time consuming and places a legal liability issue on me in a way (if I can't understand what they are telling me, ect).
If anyone is a nurse or knows what i should expect with this please offer some thoughts! Thank you.

Dear Melissa,
I was having some tests done at a Ben Archer clinic and was in the waiting area.
A spanish speaking only patient was being atteneded to in the lab room.
A nurse speaking english only was asking the spanish speaking patient some medical questions. And the spanish speaking person was unable to answer because she was not bi-lingual. (didn't understand or speak english)
Several minutes passed by, when the nurse hailed another nurse to ask the medical questions in the spanish language.
Maybe you should think of trying to learn the secondary language of the area, often times, this could be a bonus for you and may be rewarding, not to mention, you might be first hired for being bi-lingual.
Just trying to help,
hombre57

[songinthewind7]

tequila, margarita, burrito, taco...

Seriously, it would be nice to know a few words in another language or another language completely.

I've lived pretty much all over the U.S. in my lifetime and just hearing the way people talk English in whatever part of the nation you're in is hard enough.
The folks in E. Tn. had a hard time understanding me as I had a hard time understanding them.
The folks in the Cajun part of La. are also hard to understand.
What I think is that in some places, I have a hard enough time understanding English, much less Spanish or whatever.
It's a good idea though in this part of the country (like someone said) to know some Spanish, especially in your field of work.

[lisdol]

I remember some time ago UNM offered a Spanish for Health Care Professionals I believe through Continuing Ed. I would think this kind of class would be a "fast and dirty" way to pick up some useful Spanish for working with patients. I don't see it in their catalog after a quick search, but if the OP is interested I would think this would be helpful.

But like others have said, there is usually someone around who can translate if needed.

[Santa Fe]

And you will pick up some Spanish, it just happens. While the overwhelming majority here speak English, many also speak some Spanish and you hear it a lot.

[SeanAaron]

Spanish in New Mexico is like French in Louisiana its mainly for historical reasons.

Stick to English, you shouldn't be learning Spanish, they should be learning English