Jenn No Hablo Espanol

Last night at work I was floated to the well baby nursery (also known as the "Hell" baby nursery for us NICU nurses). I had to float a few times when I lived in Columbia so I felt up to the challenge of screaming babies, nervous parents and breastfeeding. When I walked into the unit, however, the first thing they asked was "do you speak Spanish?" It was at that point that I knew I was in for an interesting evening.

Many people aren't aware of the huge Hispanic population in Colorado. According to wikipidia (the source for all interesting facts on the web), 19% of Coloradoans speak Spanish. This makes Colorado #6 on the list of states with the greatest percentage of Spanish speakers (behind NM, CA, TX, AZ and NV respectively). I knew there were a lot of Spanish speakers in Colorado, specifically in Denver, but this was the first time as a nurse that I had to confront it head on.

My answer, was "Nope, I don't speak a word." which isn't true because I can say Hola and Buenos Dias and Me llamo Jenn, but in the world of nursing this isn't going to help me a lot with asking about how well the baby is eating or trying to answer their questions. I took 2 years of Latin in high school - a miserable experience with an ancient nun who hated me- so I've been very unprepared for the reality of our diversifying world and the fact that three of my patients only spoke Spanish.

I managed to make it through the night with the international language of hand gestures, pointing to my boob, the baby then the clock etc. trying to get across "when did the baby last eat" and for the most part it seemed to work. I was very stressed out though and I felt bad for the nice Moms who did make a valiant effort to use the few words that they knew to bridge the gap as well. Today, I signed up for an intensive Spanish class in January because even if I don't stick around here, it would be nice to start learning.

and the Moms who had trouble breastfeeding?? I don't even want to get started on how unprepared and clueless I am on assisting with that issue. By morning I just wanted an intubated, sedated, sick as snot baby so that I could get back to what I know!!