Patients who speak a different language...

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Captn' Tuddle

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People have told me that my knowledge of different languages (3 yrs of American Sign language and 1 1/3 yrs of Russian -so far) will help me on the field. (There are a lot of Russians living in my area and there is a school for the deaf close by). I was wondering if anyone was ever called out to a patient who spoke a different language and you couldn't understand them, or if your knowledge of different languages have helped you out before.
 
I get patients I can't understand every so often, and it sucks, especially when nobody can translate or even figure out what language they speak. I'm usually pretty good at getting them to calm down and figuring out what the complaint is, though. It takes some patience, but pointing and carefully showing them everything before putting it on them gets me pretty far.

I speak bits and pieces of a couple other languages, which proves useful. Even just knowing "please," "thank you," "sick," "pain," and "hospital" can really help. I can get by pretty well in Spanish, but my department's Spanish-speaking patients somehow always manage to call on nights when nobody who speaks Spanish is around.
 
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Absolutely it can be of assistance.

I took 2 semesters in college of ASL and practice often and I even taught my kids when they were very young with tons of videos, books, games, etc. I do not interact that often with hearing impaired, so I am not as strong as I previously was...but the key to any skill is constant practice.

I also studied Spanish 2 years in high school and study those books, especially the medical ones several times a week as there is a large Hispanic population in Florida.

Many, many times my knowledge of language has helped out on various scenes and I always strongly encourage people to try and seek out basic friendly introductions if nothing else. Not only does this build rapport with the patient or their family, it may just interest you enough to continue on and become fluent.

My old department used to offer a bonus to employees that were bilingual. I do not remember how much it was, but we built it into our contract. Of course you had to be evaluated on your proficiency by a department selected University Professor, but again it was a little recognition of your extra efforts above and beyond the call of normal duty.

I think they also had a cap per shift on the number of Spanish speakers due to many of them knowing Spanish as their first language.

Learning languages is one of my hobbies and everywhere I go, I try to learn as much as I can. When I was in the Arctic, I took lessons in Innupiaq and Russian because those were very common. When I worked in the Philippines, my Spanish came in very handy but then I practiced Tagalog as well. Now in Afghanistan, I have been taking lessons in Dari and Pashtoon.

The one place I had a lot of trouble with was Louisiana and the Northeast (USA)...sorry, you guys speak English...I think. :) Just jokes...relax.

Anyways, back on topic, absolutely, your experience and knowledge with these languages will be an asset and there will come a day when you are called upon to use them.

Good job, good luck and keep practicing and learning!
 
I second what AK said. There will definitely come a time where your knowledge of a second language will be beneficial to you and your patient. We have a large Hispanic population, so my Spanish is slowly improving. I am far from fluent, but am able to get by enough to get basic info from my patient.

I used to work in an area that had a school for the deaf in it. I was able to learn the ASL alphabet, but that is about it. It was slow, but I was able to "talk" to a small extent with those pts as well.

Others that I have come across are Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian. I am sure there have been others, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately. It does make things challenging, but you learn to make due. Among other things, we have some picture cards on our truck to try and help us get through a run when our pt doesn't speak the same language as us.
 
Picture cards? Wow, I've never heard of that before but it sounds like a really good idea.
 
When I used to work as a cashier at the local movie theater, every so often I'd get deaf patrons. If there wasn't anyone who knew ASL, I just grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote everything else. As far as patients who didn't speak English, the best thing to do is speak slow and clear (not patronizingly slow...) and pantomine as much as possible. You don't have to speak a language much to be able to get the gist of a conversation.
 
I know enough ASL to get me by, and I have used it at work a few times.

The thing to be aware of with Deaf patients (specifically those who are culturally Deaf and not deaf) is that ASL uses English words, but not English grammar and sentance structure. When writing they may write the words in the same order they would sign them. I played knight-in-shining armor to a Deaf woman who was being treated pretty badly because the cashier at the store assumed her bad grammar etc was due to her being mentally handicapped.
 
Yeah, you also have to be careful about signing to people with cochlear implants - there is a good chance that they were raised in a hearing family and find signing or any reconition of their deafness to be insulting. At the grocery store I work at now, I try to wait until they at least fingerspell something before I sign to them.
 
Cochlear implants are a huge point of debate in the Deaf community, it is enough to give someone a headache. Generally the Deaf community doesn't view their deafness as a disability or as something that needs to be fixed.

I know assumptions are bad, but if you see someone with a cochlear implant assume they communicate verbally before communicating via another method.
 
Aidey said:
Generally the Deaf community doesn't view their deafness as a disability or as something that needs to be fixed.
Click to expand...

So, then... If deafness isn't defined as a disability by those who are deaf, should deafness be exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act?
 
It is a lot more complicated than that, hence the headache. I would get into it, but I don't want to highjack the thread, if you want a run down send me a PM and I'll explain further.
 
I've only had one scenario in which knowing a foreign language has helped... I got called to a nursing home for altered level of consciousness. We were informed by staff that the patient spoke no English. Looking at her name, I took a chance and said "Parla italiano?" She nodded, so I continued my assessment in Italian. She was just more lethargic and said she was tired and felt weak. When we got to the ED, I was asked to remain and translate for them until the patients daughter arrived to translate.
 
Captn' Tuddle said:
[snip]I was wondering if anyone was ever called out to a patient who spoke a different language and you couldn't understand them, or if your knowledge of different languages have helped you out before.
Click to expand...
Personally, no, I have never had use of a second language. I took two years of German in college but that was almost 20 years ago and I have had no opportunity to speak it since. Hence, I've forgotten most of it. Sadly, the area that I live in and run in is grossly UNdiverse. We actually do have several VERY devote German Baptists in the area, but in the close to 8 years I've volunteered with the squad, I've never been called by them.

Although, while I personally have never had the chance to use a second language, I do think that knowing a second language is a fabulous tool not only for your use as an emt, but also just in general. You're more likely to be able to use it in, 'the public' then just in an emergency setting.
 
Unless it's obvious -- like, in Southern California where there's a high proportion of Spanish spoken -- it wouldn't hurt to find out if there are "pockets" of other-than-English speaking people in your coverage area, then decide if you want to go further. Otherwise, 80% of your job is communication. The more languages you can communicate in, the more bases you'll have covered.

I'm not sure if this is part of a multi-language series but THIS will get you to a real good index of Spanish phrases specifically for EMS
 
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