How My Goals Have Changed

As a rising senior in the Pitt Nursing program planning on a minor in Spanish language, my academic and career goals (I thought) were pretty set in stone. However, after my experience abroad, these goals have changed ever so slightly. Upon nearing the end of my study abroad experience, I got pretty sick and decided to use my resources and visit the local hospital to see if they could give me anything to relieve my symptoms. I get sinus infections pretty often so this was nothing out of the ordinary, however, explaining my past history with this issue and the symptoms I was currently experiencing in a language where my medical vocabulary was seriously lacking proved to be a significant issue. Back in America, I work as a patient care technician at UPMC Mercy which is a hospital located downtown, so due to a diverse clientele, I often find myself interacting with Spanish-speaking patients. They are always very grateful when they find out I can semi-understand what they are talking about because there are not many nurses or doctors who are able to communicate with them. This was one of my motivating factors when pursuing a Spanish minor, but I never truly understood the depth of what I was doing until roles were reversed and I was experiencing problems with communicating when sitting in that hospital room with two physicians. Two because one was there to thankfully attempt translation for me and communicate to the primary physician the problem I was experiencing. Eventually, we were able to come up with a solution and find the right antibiotics for me, but the relief I felt when the other physician was able to speak my native language was a feeling I will never forget. In this respect, my goals to increase my knowledge of the Spanish language while abroad and in finishing out my last year at Pitt have grown significantly. Furthermore, I may even change my minor from Spanish Language to the Hispanic Language and Culture minor, so I will be able to take the medical translation class and strengthen my vocabulary which will help me down the road in my career when interacting with patients who are native Spanish-speakers. Aside from my academic and career goals, studying abroad has allowed me to learn about and visit even more cities in Spain that I did not know about before, and others that I would like to visit in the future. For example, I learned in my film class about the city of Valencia, so my friend Francisco and I took a day trip to the city on the weekend and I was able to experience Valencian paella for the first time. An image of the beach we visited during this trip is attached to the post. Due to this new knowledge of other cities, I plan on traveling abroad again next year in order to experience other cities that I did not have time to see during this experience such as Seville or Segovia.