Where the hell is Dora when you need her!

Everything was going absolutely crazy. Patients were falling over each other in the emergency room last night. The doctor was barking out new orders before we had a chance to carry out the one's he'd told us about 2 minutes prior. The one phlebotomist that works in the hospital just clocked out. There's no respiratory therapist assigned to the emergency room.

So in other words you've got to be the nurse, the lab, and respiratory all wrapped into one neatly packaged body...UGHHHH!!! Just when you think things couldn't possibly get any worse....the ambulance is on the phone needing to give report on a patient they're bringing in. A middle aged Hispanic male that's been involved in some sort of altercation. The EMS guys are frustrated and so is the patient. He doesn't speak English and they don't speak Spanish!!! Well guess what? Neither do any of the nurses in our ER.

Oh sure, I took my obligatory 2 years of Spanish in High School...but c'mon...how far is Como estas...Que hora es....and Vaya con dios really (which is just about all I can remember) gonna get me? WHERE'S DORA WHEN YOU NEED HER?!! Prior to last night, I thought I would be somewhat prepared for the day a Spanish speaking patient rolled in without the neighborhood translator. Just a few months ago I downloaded an English to Spanish translator for my Blackberry. Great idea, right? Only problem is...once I type in what I want to ask the patient....I have no freakin' way of knowing what his responses are!

The poor guy had been beaten up pretty good. He actually ended up with two vertebral fractures and an assortment of contusions just about everywhere.

Luckily the doc spoke some Spanish and a few things I thought I'd forgotten came back to me. The guy knew just enough English and we knew just enough Spanish to accomplish the task at hand - take care of the patient. However, in observing his behavior we concluded that it's his knowledgeable lack of knowledge of the English language that gets him in trouble.

With the Hispanic population on the rise, healthcare workers and any other groups that have to interact with the public should at least attempt to learn Spanish as their second language. Hell, at the rate things are going...it may very well become THE LANGUAGE!!!

And if you think that's an impossibility...pay attention to some of the instruction manuals that come with different items these days. It takes forever to find the section that's in English!!

So, here's your Spanish lesson for today. I'm exhausted. My feet hurt and I've got 4 more nights to go. Here's my remedy:

Estoy a punto de tomar un helado frío Heineken y dormir.....Buenos días amigos!