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Hey, we were orginally really wanting to move to Oregon, but we are losing interest since I can't find a job there (for like a year now). My boyfriend is really interested in moving to Las Cruces since he has family there. He is looking into engineering programs there. The only thing holding me back is that I am really worried about trying to do my job as an RN if I possibly get bunches of patients who speak no English. I know here in MO I very rarely will get a non English speaking patient, but when I do it makes my job so much harder and more time consuming and places a legal liability issue on me in a way (if I can't understand what they are telling me, ect).
If anyone is a nurse or knows what i should expect with this please offer some thoughts! Thank you.
Should not be much of a problem. There will be those that speak English/Spanish on the staff already. Plus you can always learn. Is being bilingual a requirement for the job?
I agree with _yb unless it is a requirement for the job you won't have any issues. There is always someone around who speaks Spanish that could translate if need be, not to mention while there are alot of Spanish speakers in LC most do speak at least some English.
I would still try. Picking up a limited spanish vocabulary enough to do 90% of your job, e.g.:
"Point to where it hurts"
"Sit here and wait"
"Swallow this pill"
"Drop your pants and bend over"
should take little more than an afternoon. Surely even in Oregon you've run into the occasional non-English-speaker.. Cruces might have a higher percentage but surely it wouldn't make the job that much different.
New Mexico has a large Hispanic population, but many are from families that were here before this was part of the US and speak and write English as well or better than they speak Spanish. I don't know about LC in particular but state-wide our percentage of recent immigrants from Mexico is much lower than other southwestern states like California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and comparable to states in other parts of the country.
Shows New Mexico as the same color as Washington and Oregon.
I am not sure why we are different from other southwestern states -- I would guess that it is because we didn't have the same housing construction boom as they did. LC which has been fast growing and is quite close to Mexico might be a little higher than the NM average but still not like other southwestern areas.
Go there and click on Percentage foreign born by state and go to the far right of the table for 2008 data. New Mexico is 19th, just below Oregon at 18th and below the US average. The data is for foreign born but Mexicans comprise the largest group.
No it is not a requirment, but I just know how difficult is makes it. I'm sure I could pick up a little Spanish, but I don't know!! Thanks very much Sante Fe for the links. Interesting...
I don't think it will be a problem. What the others said earlier in the thread is true. Also, my understanding is that the Spanish in New Mexico is more of a dialect than true Spanish. It contains a lot more slang than the proper Spanish that is taught in class. Someone who is fluent in Spanish may still have a hard time understanding.
We've had no problems understanding people. This is one of the 50 states, English is spoken.
Thank you. It drives me crazy when people ask a question about speaking Spanish. This is the United States. If you moved to New York or LA you'd probably have more spanish speaking patients than here.
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Thank you.
