Pediatrics and Spanish
I had a really interesting experience again today in clinical. Just as my day was winding down, we had an order come through for a 4-year old child. The order said that the child had fallen down some stairs, and there were a LOT of x-ray requests on the order… Chest, Ribs, Pelvis, T-Spine, and L-Spine. That seemed like a lot to me, but I’m just a student and don’t know much :) I’m fairly confident that when this sort of exam comes up on a child this age, there is some type of concern about abuse, and the doctors are probably checking for that. We set up for the exams and I went to the lobby in Radiology to get the patient.
Once I got to the lobby, I found out rather quickly that I had a challenge coming. The 4-year-old patient was waiting with his mother and younger brother, and none of them spoke any English. I have been learning Spanish, but I’m FAR from conversational. One of the most important Spanish phrases I have learned is “Yo soy un estudiante de Espanol.” Telling them that I’m a student of the Spanish language should let them know that I probalby don’t know much, but I intend to try. So, I introduced myself as clearly as I could and tried to start a conversation with the 4-year-old. That part went fairly well. He told me his name and age without much problem. Since his mother was holding a much younger brother who was sleeping, I asked the child to come with me while his mother waited behind, which wasn’t received with as much interest as the name and age exchange. I told him that all I wanted to do was take his picture and that it would not hurt. I held out my hand and said “conmigo” (with me), and he held out his hand and I took him to the x-ray exam room. I showed him the x-ray equipment and moved it around some, trying to describe what he was seeing and what we would be doing (in my best elementary Spanish). At this point, I really believe I had gained his trust quite well. He wasn’t complaining. At this point, I did need some assistance from the other techs to help hold the child in position. This is where we normally run into problems with children, and we expect it. Being held in an unnatural position by strangers in a strange environment will carry its on type of psychological trauma for a child that age. Luckily, he did very well with minimal crying and practically no struggle. When we were finished, we re-dressed him and I took him back to his mother and brother in the waiting room. The child had a big grin on his face when his mother asked him if he liked getting his picture made… He told her he had fun!
This is not some sort of huge success for me, but I was happy with the outcome. Pediatrics is one specific area I have considered in the future, and experiences like this one, even though it’s rater rare, reinforce that for me.
I do intent to further my studies in Spanish in the future as well. I started taking Spanish at the school last year, and I completed two semesters of it before I gave it up. I really enjoyed the class and the teacher was great as well, but the learning pace was painfully slow. I decided to give the Rosetta Stone software a try, and I’m really enjoying that so far, even thought I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it lately. I guess that is one drawback of taking the self-paced learning as opposed to a classroom environment. The strict schedule of the class would keep me more on track and not allow me to push it aside. I would not, however, have time to take the classes while I’m in the radiography program between those class/clinical hours and work. That being the case, I’m going to work my way through the Rosetta Stone program and then re-evaluate what I want to do with my Spanish education after I graduate from the Radiography program. I think being conversational in Spanish would be very advantageous to me in this field…