Connecticut Post, Sunday, November 15, 2009
Bi-Lingual,
Bi-Cultural Skills
Can Translate into Employment and Better Paying Jobs
by MEG BARONE
Abrochure
from the Modern Language Association extols the virtues of multi-lingualism
and suggests that people seeking work in certain professions should
be proficient in more than one language.
There are benefits to having language skills. They can provide an edge
in the workplace and even in job search. The ability to speak a language
other than English may increase a job seeker’s odds of securing
a position. It could make an employee more valuable to a company that
is looking to expand into foreign markets or reach a broader clientele
at home. And it often means getting a higher sal–ary than an
employee devoid of those skills.
People can multiply their chances for success if they speak two or
more languages, said Hernan Yepes, director of student services at
Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, where he also teaches psychology
and sociology courses in Spanish.
In a global society, being mono-lingual is passé. Being multi–lingual
is desirable and prestigious, he said. “In a global society we
have to realize there is a lot to be gained,” Yepes said. Gaining
an appreciation for different cultures helps people become more com–passionate
and helps them feel more connected, he said. “Language is the
perfect vehicle for that,” he said.
Enhanced language skills also have a direct benefit that goes beyond
the personal or business application. They can mean the difference
between life and death for people in the medical profes–sion
and law enforcement.
“People who need services need to be understood and cared for well,” Yepes
said.
Antonio Senes, a retired professor who taught Spanish at Hou–satonic
Community College for almost 20 years, recalls an incident at a hospital
emergency room where a doctor was using a profes–sional translation
services over the Internet. The translator, who was not a native Spanish
speaker, had a good command of the language and for the most part was
translating correctly. But the patient kept using a particular phrase
that the translator could not comprehend. That’s because the
patient used a particular vernacular, or idi–omatic expression,
that would only have been familiar to a native Spanish speaker. The
phrase was not one that would have been taught to students in a Spanish
101 class. The phrase would not have appeared in a Spanish textbook.
Perhaps a non-native Spanish speaker would have recognized the phrase
if they had taken ad–vanced Spanish language courses or had lived
in a Spanish-speaking country for some time.
Often, advanced courses go beyond nouns and verbs to incorpo–rate
a country’s culture, and it is an understanding of that culture
as well as its language that allows for real understanding and commu–nicating.
At the emergency room, Senes had to intervene to interpret for the
doctor because the patient, who was stressed from the situation and
also had a mental illness, was saying that he wanted to hang himself.
“Sometimes it’s so crucial to know the popular people’s lan–guage
versus the book language,” said Senes, who created a Medical Spanish
course that is taught at Housatonic Community College, al–though it is
not available every semester. He said it is tremendously important to have
medical professionals who can comprehend and communicate in a patient’s
native tongue because even those that may speak English may resort to their
own language in stressful situations.
“When people get sick, either mentally or biologically, their Eng–lish
as a second language becomes almost totally obscured,” he said. Difficulty
communicating their needs can compound their stress and frustration, he said.
Officials of New England Home Care know that and make an ef–fort
to hire people with both bi-lingual and bi-cultural skills. It’s
not a matter of discrimination. The company, which is headquartered
in Cromwell and has offices in five other cities throughout the state,
has employees from many backgrounds on staff. But certain clients need
contact, at least initially, with people who thoroughly under–stand
their language and culture.
“Ninety five percent of my clients are Spanish speaking and the Latino
population is growing,” said Yvette Gonzalez, a registered nurse who
specializes in the care of psychiatric patients, who has worked for New England
Home Care for 12 years.
“The cultural part of it is so important to us. In home care it’s
not a controlled environment. You’re going into a patient’s environ–ment.
You’re entering into their privacy. You’re being invited into their
home where they feel safe and comfortable, and you have to approach your work
that way,” Gonzalez said. “In order for a patient to feel comfortable
and let you into their environment there has to be respect and understanding.
The client has to feel understood to allow the healthcare professional into
their home,” she said.
Gonzalez said that personal connection must be made with a person from
the initial meeting and assessment. If the client does not feel comfortable
with the healthcare professionals taking care of them it can interfere
with their ability to make progress in their healing, whether it’s
physical or mental.
“We cannot meet the patients’ needs if the initial connection is
not made upon admission into the home care program,” she said.
And the connection cannot be made if the nurse or home health care
aide or occupational therapist or physical therapist does not have
an understanding of a patient’s culture, beliefs and living ar–rangements,
which can vary from culture to culture.
“It’s so important in the first phase. The first person to do the
assessment should be bi-lingual and bi-cultural,” Gonzalez said. It is
even important in the second phase in which nurses teach clients about their
disease or diagnosis, how to take certain medications to optimize their health
and avoid hospitalization. Any nurse is obvi–ously capable of doing that
job. They have the medical knowledge and skill level, but it’s difficult
if there is a language barrier, Gonza–lez said.
But once the patient is engaged in the program and has devel–oped
a sense of trust, then other professional who do not share their cultural
background can be introduced to the care team.
However, the language skills are still vital.
The problem is there are not enough people in the healthcare profession
who are either bi-lingual or bi-cultural. “It’s a luxury
to have a bi-lingual, bi-cultural nurse,” Gonzalez said. There
is a great need in general for people in the field to have those qualifications,
she said.
Bi-lingual and bi-cultural home health aides are also in demand because,
among their duties is preparing a patient’s meals, Gonzalez said. “When
a patient is not feeling well, whether physically or men–tally,
what’s the first thing that usually goes? The appetite, so they
stop eating,” Gonzalez said.
Someone who shares the patient’s language and cultural back–ground
will be well versed in the kinds of foods, spices, and meal preparation
that the patient is most familiar and comfortable with.
That can help stimulate their appetite and relax them. Someone who
is Latino, especially someone who works in the healthcare profession,
will also be knowledgeable of the diseases, such as dia–betes
and high blood pressure, that plaque the Latino population.
That aide can also make meals that are culturally tasty and accept–able
but also nutritionally sound.
“It’s a holistic approach. You look at the whole picture,” Gonza–lez
said.
New England Home Care provides numerous services to its clients. Speech
pathology is not one of them. But that is another job where it would
be critical to have a real proficiency, not only in comprehending a
patient’s native language but also pronouncing each word correctly.
Senes said it is not an act of favoritism or discrimination for Spanish-speaking
patients to insist that they have Spanish-speaking medical professionals.
It is a matter of necessity, and, as pointed out in Senes’ earlier
emergency room story, it really can be a difference between life and
death if a health professional cannot understand.
A health professional must be able to comprehend what a patient is
trying to communicate in order to properly treat them. Con–versely,
a doctor or other professional must be able to communicate instructions
to a patient about proper use of a medication or foods to avoid or
activities to curtail if their injury or illness is expected to heal.
Some people cannot learn English as fast as others, and those people
should be accommodated, said Senes, who believes doctors, nurses, emergency
medical technicians and other healthcare profes–sionals should
take a Medical Spanish course to have at least some familiarity with
the language and some means of communicating with a patient.
Yepes agrees saying those few words of Spanish to an injured or ill
patient can be soothing. “If you have a healthcare professional
who has taken the time and made the effort to learn the language it
goes beyond the therapeutic effectiveness,” he said. Although
Yepes said there are no qualitative studies to support his statement,
he believes firmly that the healthcare professional that learns another
language to communicate with his or her patients proves to those patients
that they have a certain degree of compassion and empa–thy, and
that goes a long way in building trust.
At New England Home Care there are always openings for bi-lingual,
bi-cultural healthcare professionals. Those interested in applying
for work can attend an Open House that New England Home Care will host
on Thursday, Nov. 19, 4-7 p.m., at the Shelton office, 1077 Bridgeport
Ave # 301. The Open House is open to the public. It is a job recruiting
event and people are encouraged to bring their resumes.
For more information call New England Home Care’s Human Resource
Department toll-free at 800-286-6300 or call the Shelton office at
203-925-5929.
Anson C. Smith, Public Relations Coordinator
Housatonic Community College
900 Lafayette Blvd.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Tel: 203-332-5229, Fax: 203-332-5247
E-mail: asmith@hcc.commnet.edu