Thread: Bilingual Staff Big Bonus For Hospitals And Hispanic Patient

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Bilingual Staff Big Bonus For Hospitals And Hispanic Patients

By John L. Moore
The Morning News
Through an interpreter, a physician was explaining to an Hispanic patient the need to perform a CABG -- coronary artery bypass graft, or "cabbage" in the physician vernacular.

"I can't tell this patient he needs a vegetable," the interpreter replied.

Jackie Teal, senior recruiter for Washington Regional Medical System, said the cabbage incident -- told by an interpreter applying for a language assistance position at the hospital -- serves to illustrate some of the problems of interpreting for patients and doctors in hospitals and the need for bilingual staff familiar with medical terminology.

Businesses throughout Northwest Arkansas have taken steps over the past several years to adapt to the influx of Hispanics. Many banks, real-estate companies and law firms have added bilingual staff to help serve Spanish-speaking customers.

The health care industry has also taken steps to transform itself. But nursing shortages and problems attracting bilingual students into health care has stymied the process, health care professionals and researchers say.

'BLACK BOX'
Many Hispanic parents often use one of their school-age children to translate when they need help at the grocery store or the bank.

"We try to avoid that at the hospital," said Steve Percival, director of human resources at Washington Regional Medical Center.

Issues of privacy and the need for interpreters to understand medical terminology often mean a young child should not act as an interpreter for one of their parents or grandparents, Percival said.

Spanish-speaking patients in hospitals and clinics in Northwest Arkansas usually have a variety of different needs from English speaking patients that go beyond just help with language, said Rhod Suria Wright, an advanced practice nurse at JPA clinic in Fayetteville.

Wright was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Arkansas when she was 13. She is fluent in English and Spanish. As an advanced practice nurse, she sees patients about illnesses similar to the way a family practice doctor does, and is certified to write prescriptions.

"Our system often seems like a black box to them," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies. Camarota recently authored a study on immigrant mothers in the United States.

"A fundamental transformation is going on in Arkansas among our immigrant population," Camarota said. "It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It's about education."

Northwest Arkansas will feel those effects the most since the Fayetteville-Rogers-Springdale metropolitan statistical area has seen a rapid rise in Hispanic population growth, Camarota said.

The number of immigrant mothers without a high school diploma in the United States has skyrocketed, Camarota said. Most of the immigrants are Hispanic and many of the uneducated Hispanics are also unfamiliar with basic medical practices and terminology, he said.

The combination of poor education and unfamiliarity with the medical system is an enormous problem for the industry, he said.

One of the advantages of someone fluent in both English and Spanish and informed on the cultural differences of Hispanics in the area is the ability to teach Hispanic families about the medical system and basic medical care, Wright said.

Cindy Farnsworth, a registered nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers, moved to Rogers and started working at St. Mary's Hospital 13 years ago. She is a registered nurse in the women's and children's department at the hospital and works in the intensive care nursery.

"When I first came here, I probably helped one or two people a week who needed language help," Farnsworth said. "By 1995, I was speaking it everyday and seeing patients everyday who were Hispanic." Farnsworth said.

She said the parents often need more than just interpreting help, they need help understanding what's going on with their child's care.

Parents have to understand why their child is on a ventilator or has to be transported to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, Farnsworth said.

"It's good that people can set them at ease letting them know everything will be fine and telling them what we're doing and why we're doing it at a level they can understand," Farnsworth said.

KEEN SHORTAGE
The general nursing shortage is bad enough, but the lack of bilingual nurses is particularly keen, explained Walt Eilers, a consultant for Northwest Arkansas Nursing Education Consortium.

Eilers said area nursing schools will need to train 756 bilingual nurses between now and 2025 just to keep up with expected growth.

Those number prompted the consortium to establish a bilingual nursing education program. Community Care Foundation will provide $100,000 for that program this year, said Jan Huneycutt Lightner, a program officer for the foundation.

Maternity wards, general practice clinics and emergency rooms have the most immediate need for bilingual nurses, Eilers said. Geriatric care and other areas of health care will see the same need very soon, he said.

Public schools in the area are turning out many students who speak Spanish when they start school and know English well by the time they're done, but getting the bilingual students to consider higher education and a career in nursing is difficult, Wright said.

CAREER EDUCATION
The problem with getting more bilingual Hispanic students into nursing is often not one of desire, but economics and awareness, Eilers said.

Eilers said the consortium is in their second year of developing the bilingual nursing program.

The program is designed to inform bilingual children on health care professions, train them to become professionals in the industry and provide scholarships and stipends for a nursing education.

The program works on three different levels, Eilers said. The first is educating bilingual children as early as the third grade about careers in medicine and that their language skills could make them more employable.

The second part of the consortium's program is to offer mini-courses to prepare bilingual students to become certified nurse's assistants. That can help solve one of the major difficulties in attracting Hispanics into higher education.

Wright said most teenage Hispanics in the area believe they must start work as soon as possible to help bring in money for their families.

Eilers said the bilingual nursing program offers the chance for bilingual students to become a certified nurse's assistant and work on weekends to help overcome that barrier.

By offering stipends as well as scholarships, the program also can help overcome the economic and cultural barrier for Hispanic students who feel they have to start contributing to their families economic bottom line as soon as possible.

BILINGUAL BONUS
Hospitals and clinics will also have to work to retain bilingual nurses, Farnsworth said. Eilers said the hospitals in the area now offer some kind of pay benefit for bilingual nurses.

St. Mary's recently instituted increased pay for nurses who are bilingual. A six-week course on interpreting and language is required to receive the bonus, Farnsworth said.

At Washington Regional Medical Center, nurses are paid more for various skills or competencies they have above their regular nursing degree. One of those competencies is a second language, Percival said.

U.S. Census reports show that 35 primary languages are spoken in Northwest Arkansas homes, with Spanish the largest other than English. The area also has a sizable population of Marshal Island immigrants.

Interpreter services by phone are offered to area hospitals through a service provided by AT&T. That service has been around for 10 years, Percival said.

Percival also hired Iliana Rivera to work as a language assistance coordinator at the hospital. One of her tasks will be to identify staff at the hospital able to help with translation.

Rivera said the hospital started a program teaching the protocol and ethics of acting as an interpreter, and plans cultural education classes for hospital staff.

The medical system has about 60 registered nurses who are bilingual, Teal said.

I guess this one makes me really mad.
The ILLEGAL ALIENS are making an impact on our health care system that you are not really seeing. Working in a hospital is like working on another planet. You go there only when you have to. I go there everyday because my fellow man needs care. However, these ILLEGAL ALIENS have simply overwhelmed emergency and operating rooms from sea to shining sea. Here in TEXAS, it is out of control. Our county commissioners have to keep coming up with more and more money for the county hospital, and they are having to take it from funds designed for other needs for Dallas County, not mexiho. I am not going to say more cause this just makes so mad I can't think.