What Should Bilingual Job Seekers Do?
Holt suggests bilingual healthcare job seekers subscribe to professional journals (such as the AJN, or American Journal of Nursing), and join Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic/Latino professional organizations. They should also inquire about collaborative efforts among hospitals, medical and nursing schools, nonprofit foundations and government agencies. This is true even for health professionals who are not proficient in Spanish. For example, the US Department of Health and Human Services awarded the University of Texas at El Paso an $800,000 grant to prepare culturally and linguistically competent family nurse practitioners to work at border clinics. Asian-Language Speakers Needed Bilingual and bicultural healthcare needs extend beyond Spanish, of course. Romero says immigration is increasing from countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos — places where medical care is vastly different from the United States. And at the same time, immigration policy is staunching the flow of healthca
