Shazia
Job Title
Senior Staff Nurse
Company and location
Emergency Care, London
Industry sector
Health and social care
What does your job involve?
Rapidly assessing patients that come into accident and emergency, providing immediate treatment where needed. Dealing with everything from cuts, bruises and burns to heart attacks, stabbings, shootings and major incidents.
What do you like about your job?
I love not knowing what’s going to come through the door! I really like the diversity of the job and the challenge of coping with major emergencies.
How did you get into that area of work?
I did a GNVQ in Health & Social Care (Advanced) in sixth form then a three-year DipHE in Adult Nursing. I’ve been a Senior Staff Nurse for six years now.
How did you gain your language skills?
I was brought up speaking Urdu at home. It’s very similar to Hindi when you speak it - though the written form is different – and to Punjabi, so I can communicate in all three languages.
How do you use your languages at work?
People who speak little or no English come in here regularly. We had a young mother recently, for example, whose child was being sick everywhere but she didn’t have the English language skills to tell us what had happened or even to give the child’s name. Basically, I can do my job – e.g. taking patients’ histories, assessing what’s wrong and giving treatment - in their language.
What are the advantages of having language skills in your job?
It makes life so much easier! Obviously, people are often very upset and stressed – having someone who can speak and understand their language is comforting for them.
When there’s a language barrier, there’s a risk of not diagnosing the problem properly. Sometimes people bring their family members to act as interpreters. This can cause real problems. They may not have the skills to interpret, for a start, but in some cases – e.g. abuse cases – they may be hiding the truth deliberately. It puts the patient in an impossible situation. Being able to do my job in other languages means that I can speak to the patients one-to-one and find out what’s really going on. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction.
Any tips for someone considering a career in healthcare?
Anyone from anywhere can come in here! So having skills in any language other than English is an advantage.