At the clinic, the head nurse was providing immunizations to a lot of the community members. We participated and administered the injections. I introduced myself to my patient in Spanish before drawing up the influenza vaccination. She seemed confused when I spoke to her. The nurse explained that the patient understands Spanish but speaks mainly Ngobe, the native language of the indigenous people in the area surrounding the clinic. The nurse helped me translate some basic sentences from Spanish to Ngobe. The nurse was fluent in both Spanish and Ngobe. She explained everything to the patient.
One of the doctors, on the other hand, claimed that Ngobe is a useless language. He could not understand why the people do not just learn Spanish. He has refused to learn any words in Ngobe and communicates with the patients in Spanish only.
I was very impressed with the level of care the nurse provided and confused by the doctor's comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment