Spanish For Health Care Professionals

2010-10-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

By Donald Hylton
You should be able to find several indispensable facts in this article about the usefulness of learning Spanish for the Health Care professions. If there's at least one fact you didn't know before, imagine the difference it might make.
If you are a nurse, doctor, paramedic or any type of health care professional, I'm sure you are aware of the number of people requiring health care who speak languages other than English. Depending on your geographical location, many of the people you will provide for are Spanish speakers. It goes without saying that if you are working at a health care clinic in Korea town, you probably will find very few Spanish speaking patients. But for the most part, almost everywhere you practice health care, you will find Spanish speaking patients.
Being able to communicate in Spanish can be very advantageous. Numerous studies have shown that language barriers hinder access to health care, lessen the quality of care and increase the risk of negative health outcomes. In fact, it is very important to your practice of health care. For instance you may find it difficult to determine what level of pain your patient has if you can't ask in Spanish. The family members might not be available to translate, if they speak English. Knowing how to understand someone who is trying to describe his chest pains could be a matter of life or death.
In southern California, there are six different species of rattlesnakes. A program on Animal Planet called "Venom ER" highlights Dr. Bush and his treatment of snakebite victims brought to Loma Linda University Hospital.
Imagine you work at the Emergency Room at Loma Linda University Hospital. The paramedics have just brought in a snakebite victim who only speaks Spanish. He is trying to describe the snake that bit him. As the health care provider on duty, wouldn't it be helpful if you could communicate directly with your patient, instead having to find an interpreter?
Is everything making sense so far? Knowing how to ask basic questions can greatly lend to the succesful treatment of your patients. Not knowing how could result in a negative outcome.
On the monetary side of things, most insurers will not pay for language translation. Funding language services falls mainly on the shoulders of the hospitals. Eighty-two percent of hospitals that were surveyed indicated their dependence on bilingual clinical staff. Seventy-nine percent of those hospitals that responded to surveys indicated that training on how to respond to patients and family members who do not speak English would be helpful.
While hospitals and other health care institutions may not offer language pay, learning Spanish is definitely recommended. Finding the time is another story. Between long shifts, in-training, and family or social life, finding time to go to school is difficult to say the least.
Learning Spanish on line, or from a course purchased on line, should definitely be considered. It has many advantages. You can study at your own pace, when you have time. You can use interactive programs on your computer or listen to CDs in your car, or download lessons to your MP3 player.
However you decide to do it, it will benefit you and your patients.

How to Learn Spanish the Easy Way

2009-04-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in learning Spanish, then Rocket Spanish is one of the best courses available.

When I learned Spanish, I learned it the hard way. I went through hundreds of vocabulary flash cards, memorizing rules of grammar, and not knowing why a certain way of saying things was correct. It took me three months, 3 to 4 hours a day to even grasp a basic knowledge of Spanish. I wish that Rocket Spanish had been available for me. It would have been a lot easier.

With Rocket Spanish you can learn to speak Spanish in less than 8 weeks. It is an interactive course that makes it not only fun to learn, but practical. Rocket Spanish offers an interactive audio course, grammar lessons (so you can know why saying something a certain way is correct). There is a vocabulary word building game as well as a software game that will help you learn to recognize over 1,000 words.

The downside to this course is that even though Rocket Spanish makes it fun and easy to learn, you still need to invest the time and effort to use the course. Nobody is going to sit there and force you to learn Spanish. I least I hope not!

Of course anyone would want to know how much the course costs. Normally it is $299.95, but I understand that they are currently offering it for $99.95. It is available in CD form or as an immediate download. I give it 4 1/2 stars.

To find out more about Rocket Spanish "Click Here".

Another course I highly recommend is "At Last! An Easy Way to Speak Spanish." I really think that they should have called it "Shortcuts to Spanish Success". It really does have hundreds of shortcuts that help make the transition from English to Spanish very simple.

This is Spanish that you can learn and use in less than a month! It is very practical and useful. The course writer, Marcus Santamaria, shows you over 253 words that are almost the same in English and Spanish. There are actually hundreds more and Mr. Santamaria covers them very well in his 31 lesson audio course. People from all over the world have written in to say how much they liked the course and how it has helped them speak Spanish. I'm very impressed with what this course offers as well as it's value.

The downside? Well, if you are looking for something dry and boring covering all the rules of grammer and the conjugation of various verbs, I'd go to a bookstore and buy "A million and one Spanish verbs". (Rocket Spanish does offer the rules of grammar if you feel it is important to you).

How much is it? If you want to download it, it's only $29.95. If you want it delivered to your home, it's a little more, $49.95 still a great bargain.

I give it 5 stars because of it's price and immediate usability.

To find out more about "An Easy Way to Speak Spanish" "Click Here".