[Magdalen] 50 - 50

[Jay Weigel]

Explanation of above post for those who don't know: We could only lay the
patient flat if we turned off the feeding, but the dietitian had determined
that she needed X calories per day. This was figured out by calories per cc
and then divided into cc/hr. Except this is frequently set up on a 24 hour
cycle, which if you think about it is a little ridiculous. Who eats 24/7?

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 6:53 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hospitals need to stop this ridiculous business of requiring
> "interpreters" rather than the patient's family (when they are available)
> to interpret for the patient. First of all, who knows the patient better
> than family? Second, when it comes down to dialect, frequently the
> interpreter does not know the various dialects! No interpreter, no matter
> how good, can be expected to know them all! I did a travel assignment in
> the DC area in a hospital where all the signage was in 6 languages (not
> nearly enough!) and the staff in the unit where I worked represented 14
> different countries. We managed *fairly* well with our patient base,
> although we got stuck often enough. For instance, our Spanish-speaking
> nurses were sometimes confounded by a dialect or accent they weren't
> familiar with, and you'd even hear them pleading "Mas despacho, por favor!"
> ("Slower, please!) But usually it was more like, "Don't worry if no one on
> this shift speaks your language, someone on the next shift probably will."
> The only time we got totally stuck was with a patient from a really
> isolated area of Afghanistan. Nobody could understand her. Finally a niece
> came in and was able to untangle a number of mysteries for us, including
> the fact that she was in so much pain with her back that she could only
> sleep flat, but because she was being tube fed, we had been keeping her at
> a 40 degree angle or more 24/7. She happened to be my patient that night
> and I did the math and figured out that we could let her lie flat and sleep
> 8 hours simply by increasing her feeding rate 8 cc an hour. After the dr.
> and the dietitian agreed, we did that and she started to get better much
> faster. If it hadn't been for the niece we might never have learned why she
> was so miserable.
>
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 6:32 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
> oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I suspect that often the language spoken is not spoken in the best sense
>> of
>> the word too.
>>
>> I've heard that often when Spanish-speaking kids study Spanish, the
>> formality of the language throws them, as the language they learned in the
>> home is a bare-bones version of the best the parents know anyway.
>>
>> I was a linguist on call for my hospital, and was asked to help with a
>> Russian-speaking person.
>> I was a bit embarrassed when I could not make much sense of ANYTHING this
>> older lady was saying.
>> Then I finally heard what I could sort of understand.
>> "Nye vyshla v shkolye."  ("I did not go to school.")
>>
>> We had a person at our hospital who was obviously Chinese, but nobody
>> could
>> communicate with him (remember that incredible installation of "Barney
>> Miller"?). We got linguists to come in, and finally one guy said, "I can't
>> understand him, but he SOUNDS like the people in a village sort of near us
>> talk." So, they search for someone from that village. Finally the person
>> came. At first, nothing, but then he opened up and they talked.
>>
>> We were able to find his elderly parents and they were brought up to visit
>> him. He had a long history of mental illness and wandering off and living
>> on the street, and they had assumed that he was dead.  We kept a closer
>> than usual eye on him, knowing he would wander again.  He at least was
>> being kept safe.
>>
>> In any case, or as some of the savvy would put it, "IAE", just putting
>> material in to a known target language is not always all that useful.
>>
>> Best to place a very high priority on gaining English proficiency,
>> reading,
>> writing and speaking.
>>
>> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
>> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
>> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 5:42 PM, Roger Stokes <
>> roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > On 07/06/2015 22:30, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
>> >
>> >> On the front page of the local (Hazleton, PA) Sunday paper there was
>> an
>> >> article about the current state of languages dominating the school
>> >> system.
>> >>   Though the city primary schools had up and down percentages based
>> >> on their location, the local high school is now 50 - 50 Spanish -
>> >> English.
>> >>   That is, 50% of students said their first language was Spanish, and
>> >> 50% said English.  Those who spoke both languages were included  among
>> >> the Spanish totals.
>> >>   There are a lot of services available in English and Spanish, and the
>> >> going
>> >> rate for bilingual interpreters is $31/hour.
>> >>   As I understand it, the teaching continues to be primarily in
>> English.
>> >>
>> >
>> > This is a very real problem here in England.  For a time there was an
>> > attempt to offer hospitality by providing forms in numerous foreign
>> > languages.  The problem is that the number of languages has
>> nushroomed.  In
>> > this relatively small town it is estimated that there are over 100
>> native
>> > alnguages.  Certainly I know in one small (roll 140) school there are 20
>> > mother tongues.  In such a situation there has to be a single language
>> for
>> > teaching and English is the obvious one.
>> >
>> > Roger
>> >
>>
>
>