Hi. I am a student double majoring in Nursing and Spanish at UMass Amherst. In addition to that, I am pursuing a Spanish and Health Certificate that is also offered by UMass. I am from Western Massachusetts, specifically Holyoke. My mother is Puerto Rican while my father is of Irish decent. Holyoke is a city with a 52% population of Latinos. Growing up most of my peers and friends were Latino. I’ve been to Puerto Rico plenty of times, since most of my mother’s side of the family still lives there. I am bilingual and am already fluent in Spanish. I love the music and culture. These are primary reasons why I chose to have Spanish as my secondary major, although there are other reasons too.

I chose Nursing for a variety of different reasons. My main inspiration to become a nurse comes from my desire to care for people who need it. Helping others is something that is part of my personality and it is something I love to do. Helping patients recover from their conditions, while helping them and their families get through their difficult situations emotionally. Seeing people suffer affects me and drives me to help them rid their pain and troubles. The most important thing is the positive impacts and outcomes that come from helping other human beings is rewarding. I believe that nursing is more than a career or profession, it is a lifestyle.

Double Majoring in Nursing and Spanish will help me more in the future but will also help my patients. America is a very diverse country and there are a lot of Latinos out there. By being a bilingual and Latino nurse, I would improve the quality of care for patients that don’t speak English but instead only speak Spanish or would rather speak Spanish since it is their first language. It would help them better understand medical terminology and would be a better and more comfortable way of communication for them. It would also make them feel more included and help their situation become a little easier just by knowing their native language. By learning more about different Latino cultures in the various classes provided by UMass, it would create situations in which I would be more familiar with patients’ cultures and help their stay be more comfortable and easier. It is just a small step into making the healthcare system more inclusive to people who may feel like outsiders.

On top of helping people that are Hispanic and Latino, being bilingual and having double majoring in Spanish increases opportunities in finding jobs. There is a high demand for Bilingual Nurses. Many healthcare facilities like hospitals, clinics, schools, and others are centered around major cities, most of which contain high populations of diverse groups of people. Being bilingual will help you get more opportunities of getting nursing jobs because of the diversity, rather than knowing one language alone. I would also be able to become a traveling nurse and go to countries where their primary language is Spanish and get more on hands experience with other cultures.

I believe that all of the Spanish courses provided by UMass offer a big number of opportunities for people to learn more about the language, culture, and people of Hispanic and Latino communities.