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EDITOR'S
NOTE
Yes, you can
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| Illustration
by Malcolm Garris/PhotoDisc |
March
18, 1999
Almost everybody realizes that it’s important to be culturally sensitive to the vast diversity of backgrounds and world views of patients. Even so, most of us really have only a very superficial understanding of other cultures. The vast majority of nurses and allied health professionals cannot speak a second language, and few education programs require the study of a foreign language after high school. But we should. We’re quite likely to need another language in our work. According to a Harris poll, 34 percent of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 meet or interact daily with a non-English-speaking person. In health care, the percentage is probably even higher. Skeptics say that nurses and allied health professionals can already barely fit everything they need into their current course of study. And learning a language is very challenging and time-consuming. Besides, there are so many languages spoken in our metropolitan areas that some people argue that it’s not worth the bother since you couldn’t possibly learn them all. But some experts think it’s well worth the investment. Ramon Lavendero, MSN, RN, director of the International Leadership Institute for nursing’s honor society, Sigma Theta Tau, in Indianapolis, thinks it’s critical. He says that just the process of learning another language allows one’s mind to work differently, to understand that a concept and its symbol are not identical. "Even if the other language you know is Mandarin and you’re dealing with Haitians, you at least realize that you have more than one way to say something," he said. At the very least, just trying to learn another language makes you far more patient with someone who doesn’t speak yours, he says. Some say that you can’t ever really understand someone’s world view without knowing something of his or her language. Lavendero remembers a German-speaking nutritionist, for example, who understood why a German patient on dialysis felt he had to have a beer once a day. Rather than summarily dismissing his request, the nutritionist’s knowledge of the patient’s cultural background helped her figure a way to work his diet around his particular wish. "Without knowing the language, you can’t really understand the why behind the cultural preferences or traditions," said Lavendero, who speaks several languages fluently. If almost every nurse and allied health professional could speak another language, hospitals would be better off. Care would be friendlier and more accessible, and the outcomes would undoubtedly be better. As we think about what kind of education new students will need in the 21st century, we shouldn’t neglect the question of requiring education in a second language. Nursing and most allied health professions should start to require at least two years of a foreign language in high school, followed by two years in college. What a small world it would then be. Barbara
Bronson Gray, MN, RN |
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