Nurse requirements to include Spanish

    Because of a growing Hispanic population, nursing students will face a new curriculum requirement. University of Texas at Austin has designed a Spanish class for health-care employees.

   In an effort to provide quality health care for everyone, experts believe it is essential that more health-care professionals speak Spanish.

   Starting next fall, students who are nursing majors will be required to enroll in a one-semester course in which they will be taught essential health-care phrases in Spanish. This particular course was designed for students who know little or no Spanish.

   According to Orlando Kelm, who helped design the course, “We’re not really teaching them how to speak in Spanish as much as we are how to do certain tasks in Spanish.”

   Among many other nursing degree requirements, this course will add diversity to the students’ communication capabilities, Kelm said.

   In 2001, Texas was overwhelmingly understaffed in the nursing industry. According to the Texas Hospital Association, over 20,000 nurses are needed to match the national average of registered nurses per 100,000 population.

   With the Hispanic population increasing rapidly in the state of Texas, employing Spanish-speaking nurses makes sense, Kelm said.

   If nursing students are taught some of the essentials in Spanish, they will be more prepared to care for their Spanish-speaking patients.