Blog — Clinical Spanish
Spanish for dialysis nurses: the patient who calls from the passenger seat to ask if it’s still okay to come after missing yesterday’s session, the family member driving who keeps interpreting before the nurse finishes the question, and the post-session dizziness the patient describes as “me mareé en el carro” two days after treatment
Jorge Castillo is 64 years old. He has been on hemodialysis for two and a half years. He goes Monday, Wednesday, Friday. On Monday he woke at 5:30 with nausea and told his wife Rosa that he was not feeling up to it. Rosa called the dialysis center and left a voicemail. Jorge stayed home. On Wednesday morning, Rosa is driving Jorge to his session. They are fifteen minutes out when Jorge calls the center from the passenger seat and asks: “¿Está bien que vaya hoy? No fui el lunes.” (Is it okay to come today? I did not come Monday.) The phone is on speaker. Rosa is behind the wheel. She can hear everything. Three failure modes that arrive by phone before the patient reaches the chair: the missed-session patient calling in transit, requiring a rapid clinical screen the nurse must complete before the car reaches the parking lot; the family member on speakerphone who answers the nurse’s questions in English before Jorge has had a chance to answer them himself; and the post-session dizziness from two days ago that another patient calls in on a Thursday morning because he was not sure it was the kind of thing that warranted a call and his daughter told him he should probably mention it.
Failure mode 1: The patient who calls from the passenger seat after missing yesterday’s session
The nurse who picks up and hears “¿está bien que vaya hoy?” from a patient in a moving car is facing a specific decision problem. Jorge has already missed one session. A patient on hemodialysis with no residual renal function who missed his Monday session has 48 hours of fluid, uremic toxins, and potassium that the Monday session was supposed to remove. He may feel fine. He may feel worse. He may have clinical findings that would change what the chair nurse needs to do in the first twenty minutes of the Wednesday session. Or he may have 48 hours of accumulated volume that would change where he goes — chair versus emergency department — before the session begins.
None of this is knowable from “¿está bien que vaya hoy?” And the nurse who says “sí, venga” without asking has passed on the only assessment window she has before Jorge is in the chair.
The nurse who says “déjeme hablar con el doctor primero y le llamamos” and then does not call back within five minutes has told a patient in a moving car that his access to today’s session is uncertain. Jorge may tell Rosa to turn around. He is 64, he defers to authority, and if the nurse said “wait for a call” and the call has not come, it is reasonable for Jorge to interpret the silence as a soft no.
The correct response is a rapid pre-arrival phone screen that takes four minutes, gives the nurse the clinical picture she needs to flag the charge nurse, and ends with a clear arrival instruction so Jorge knows he is expected.
“Señor Castillo, me alegra que llame. Antes de que llegue, tengo cuatro preguntas rápidas. ¿Le parece?”
(Mr. Castillo, I am glad you called. Before you arrive, I have four quick questions. Is that okay?)
The four questions:
“¿Se pesó esta mañana? ¿Cuánto marcó la báscula comparado con lo que pesa normalmente cuando viene al tratamiento?”
(Did you weigh yourself this morning? What did the scale say compared to what you normally weigh when you come in for treatment?)
If Jorge has no scale at home:
“¿Sus tobillos o piernas se ven más hinchados que el viernes pasado cuando se fue de aquí?”
(Do your ankles or legs look more swollen than last Friday when you left here?)
“¿Puede respirar bien sentado en el carro ahora mismo? ¿Siente que le falta el aire?”
(Can you breathe well sitting in the car right now? Do you feel short of breath?)
“¿Tiene náuseas en este momento, o ya se le quitaron desde el lunes?”
(Do you have nausea right now, or has it gone away since Monday?)
“¿Cómo se siente usted ahora comparado con cómo se suele sentir cuando viene al tratamiento normalmente? ¿Peor, igual, o un poco mejor?”
(How do you feel now compared to how you usually feel when you come in for treatment normally? Worse, the same, or a little better?)
The weight question is the most important. A patient who gained 3 kg above his usual pre-treatment weight since Friday has almost certainly gained more than 2 kg since Monday — the session that was supposed to reset his fluid baseline. That is a charge nurse conversation before Jorge arrives, not a discovery at the chair.
The breathing question has a specific threshold: orthopnea — needing to sit up to breathe comfortably — is pulmonary edema until the chest film says otherwise. A patient on hemodialysis who cannot lie flat on the morning after a missed session is a phone call to the nephrologist before the session starts, not a modification of the UFR discovered when the patient cannot tolerate the chair position.
After the four questions, the nurse ends the call with a clear arrival instruction:
“Ya lo espero en unos diez minutos. Voy a avisarle a la enfermera de cargo de que no vino el lunes para que podamos revisarle bien cuando llegue. No necesita hacer nada más — solo venga.”
(I am already expecting you in about ten minutes. I am going to let the charge nurse know you did not come Monday so we can check you well when you arrive. You do not need to do anything else — just come.)
The sentence “solo venga” matters. Jorge called to ask for permission. The nurse who answers the question “¿está bien que vaya?” with four clinical questions before any answer has inadvertently left the permission question open. “Solo venga” closes it. Jorge has permission. The chair is being prepared. The charge nurse is being told. There is nothing ambiguous about whether he should turn around.
What the nurse does after she hangs up: flags the charge nurse with the phone screen results, pulls Jorge’s last session notes to review his Friday post-treatment weight and blood pressure, and leaves a note in the chart that a phone pre-arrival assessment was completed with findings. The chair nurse who receives Jorge at arrival already knows whether the Monday weight gain is within expected range or is a volume concern that changes the session parameters.
Failure mode 2: The family member on speakerphone who interprets before the nurse finishes asking
Rosa Mendoza has been Jorge’s healthcare navigator for twenty-two years. She attends every oncology appointment, every primary care visit, every specialist consultation. She speaks English fluently. She can translate accurately. She knows Jorge’s medications by name and dosage. She is not an obstacle to Jorge’s care. She is, in most clinical encounters, a genuine asset.
The problem is structural, not personal.
The phone is on speaker. The nurse asks: “¿Se pesó esta mañana?” Rosa says, in English, before Jorge has spoken: “He was 75 kilos this morning, same as usual.” The nurse asks: “¿Puede respirar bien?” Rosa says: “He says he’s fine, he feels okay.” The nurse asks about nausea. Rosa says: “The nausea is gone, it was just one morning.” Jorge says “sí” at the end of each answer because he does not want to contradict his wife in front of the nurse and because, from his perspective, she is correct.
The nurse now has a weight, a breathing status, and a nausea report. She has them from Rosa. She does not have them from Jorge.
This is not a small distinction. Rosa said 75 kilos, same as usual. But Rosa was not there when Jorge weighed himself. If Jorge was actually 77.3 kilos — 2.3 kg above his usual 75 — and Rosa rounded down based on what she expected, the phone screen missed a clinically meaningful volume gain. If Jorge was having some mild dyspnea on exertion this morning that he would have mentioned if the nurse asked him directly — something he did not mention to Rosa because he did not want her to worry — the phone screen missed it.
The nurse cannot ask Rosa to stop. Rosa is driving. The call is on speaker because that is how Jorge uses his phone. Telling Rosa “please let him answer” is a social correction that creates tension in a car where two people are thirty seconds from an argument and Jorge will either side with his wife or become so uncomfortable that the clinical information completely disappears.
The technique is redirection, not correction.
The nurse addresses Jorge by name, with a closed question that requires a first-person answer before Rosa can summarize it:
“Señor Castillo, usted mismo — ¿puede respirar bien ahora en el carro?”
(Mr. Castillo, yourself — can you breathe well right now in the car?)
The phrase “usted mismo” is the key. It is not a criticism of Rosa. It is a linguistic structure that names the speaker the nurse wants. “Usted mismo” says: I am asking you, specifically, not anyone else in the car. It is natural in Spanish. It does not require Rosa to stop. It gives Jorge a social signal that the nurse is talking to him and he should answer.
If Rosa answers first:
“Gracias, señora — y también quiero escucharle a él directamente por un momento, para asegurarme de entender bien cómo se siente. Señor Castillo — ¿le duele algo en este momento?”
(Thank you, ma’am — and I also want to hear from him directly for a moment, to make sure I understand well how he feels. Mr. Castillo — does anything hurt right now?)
The nurse thanks Rosa before redirecting. She names why she wants to hear Jorge — to understand how he feels — not to correct Rosa or override her. Then she immediately returns to Jorge with the next question, not waiting for Rosa to object.
Three questions that Jorge must answer in his own words to have clinical value:
“Señor Castillo — ¿le duele algo ahora mismo?”
(Mr. Castillo — does anything hurt right now?)
“¿Algo se siente diferente a cómo se sentia usted el viernes cuando se fue de aquí?”
(Does anything feel different from how you felt last Friday when you left here?)
“¿Cómo se siente ahora mismo comparado con cómo se siente normalmente antes de llegar al tratamiento?”
(How do you feel right now compared to how you normally feel before you get to treatment?)
These questions have no factual answer that Rosa can supply. She does not know what Jorge normally feels like before treatment from the inside. She knows what he looks like. She does not know what he notices in his own body.
After the direct questions to Jorge, the nurse turns to Rosa as the expert she actually is — a household observer who sees Jorge in the hours between sessions:
“Señora, usted lo conoce mejor que nadie — ¿notó algo diferente en él ayer o antesdeayer? ¿En cómo caminaba, en su apetito, en cómo durmió?”
(Ma’am, you know him better than anyone — did you notice anything different in him yesterday or the day before? In how he walked, in his appetite, in how he slept?)
This question uses Rosa’s actual competence. She is not being asked to interpret. She is being asked to report what she observed. Those are different functions and she is genuinely excellent at the second one. The nurse now has Jorge’s first-person report of symptoms and Rosa’s observer report of the 48 hours between sessions. That is a more complete picture than either one alone.
The structural insight here is that family members who interpret on phone calls are not creating problems. They are filling a vacuum. When the nurse’s question is open-ended and directed at Jorge but the phone is on speaker and Rosa speaks English, Rosa will answer because she can answer faster, she wants to help, and no one has given her a different role. The nurse who gives Rosa a different role — household observer, not real-time interpreter — gets the clinical information she actually needs from two people who each have access to different parts of it.
Failure mode 3: “Me mareé en el carro” — post-session hypotension reported two days later
Aurelio Peña is 71. He has been on hemodialysis Monday, Wednesday, Friday for four years. He is compliant, attends every session, does not miss appointments. On Tuesday — a Wednesday-morning call, two days after his Monday session — he tells the nurse on the phone:
“Queria avisarles que el lunes en el carro, cuando me llevaban a casa, me senti muy mareado. Me quedé quieto un rato y se me fue. ¿Es normal?”
(I wanted to let you know that Monday in the car, when they were taking me home, I felt very dizzy. I stayed still for a while and it went away. Is it normal?)
He has been thinking about this since Monday afternoon. His daughter Graciela saw him holding the car door when the driver helped him out and asked him about it. He told her it was nothing. On Tuesday she asked again. On Wednesday morning she said: “Pá, deberías llamarlos.” So he called.
The failure mode is the response that closes the loop without opening it:
“Sí, a veces eso pasa después de la diálisis. Es el cuerpo ajustándose. Si le pasa de nuevo, avísenos.”
(Yes, sometimes that happens after dialysis. It is the body adjusting. If it happens again, let us know.)
This is medically incomplete in a specific way. Post-session dizziness in a dialysis patient is post-dialytic hypotension until the clinical record says otherwise. It is a documented event with a chart entry, a review trigger, and a modification implication — not a self-resolving symptom to monitor for recurrence.
The nurse who heard “me mareé en el carro y se me fue” and said “es el cuerpo ajustándose” has documented nothing, reviewed nothing, and changed nothing about what will happen at the end of Aurelio’s next session before he gets in the van.
The correct response begins with the single sentence that validates why Aurelio called:
“Señor Peña, hizo bien en llamar. Lo que describe es exactamente el tipo de cosa que necesitamos saber. Tengo cinco preguntas rápidas para entender bien lo que pasó — ¿le parece?”
(Mr. Peña, you did the right thing calling. What you describe is exactly the kind of thing we need to know. I have five quick questions to understand what happened — is that okay?)
The five questions:
“¿Cuánto tiempo después de que terminó su tratamiento se sintió mareado? ¿Fue en cuanto se paró de la silla para salir del centro, o más tarde en el carro?”
(How long after your treatment ended did you feel dizzy? Was it as soon as you stood from the chair to leave the center, or later in the car?)
This question distinguishes orthostatic hypotension at the moment of standing — which the chair nurse should have caught before releasing the patient — from later-onset hypotension in the car, which the chair nurse could not have caught without a protocol for delayed post-session monitoring.
“¿Cómo fue el mareo? ¿Fue una sensación de giro, como si el cuarto girara, o se le oscureció la vista, o sintió que se iba a desmayar?”
(What was the dizziness like? Was it a spinning sensation, like the room spinning, or did your vision go dark, or did you feel like you were going to faint?)
Pre-syncope — darkening vision, the sense of imminent loss of consciousness — is a different clinical event than positional spinning or simple lightheadedness. Aurelio’s answer here determines whether the chart note reads “post-session lightheadedness” or “post-session near-syncope.”
“¿Tuvo que sujetarse de algo en el carro, o pudo sentarse y quedarse quieto solo? ¿Pudo salir del carro solo cuando llegó a casa?”
(Did you have to hold onto something in the car, or could you sit quietly on your own? Could you get out of the car alone when you got home?)
“¿Cuánto tiempo le duró? ¿Unos minutos en el carro, o todavía lo sintió cuando entró a su casa?”
(How long did it last? A few minutes in the car, or did you still feel it when you went inside your house?)
“Y ahora mismo esta mañana — ¿cómo se siente? ¿Tiene algún mareo, falta de aire, o dolor en el pecho?”
(And right now this morning — how do you feel? Do you have any dizziness, shortness of breath, or chest pain?)
After the screen, the nurse tells Aurelio what she is going to do:
“Voy a revisar sus apuntes del lunes para ver cómo estaba su presión cuando terminó el tratamiento. También voy a hablar con el médico para que lo sepan antes de que venga el miércoles. Lo que usted sintió en el carro entra en su historial — no es solo una nota para nosotros, es una cosa que puede cambiar cómo revisamos su presión al final del tratamiento antes de que salga.”
(I am going to review your Monday notes to see how your blood pressure was when treatment ended. I am also going to speak with the doctor so they know before you come on Wednesday. What you felt in the car goes in your record — it is not just a note for us, it is something that can change how we check your blood pressure at the end of treatment before you leave.)
That last sentence is essential. Aurelio called because his daughter told him to. He is not sure the dizziness mattered enough to call about. Telling him explicitly that what he experienced goes into his chart and will change what the nurse does at the end of his next session gives him a concrete reason to call again if something similar happens. The abstract instruction “if it happens again, let us know” relies on Aurelio making the same judgment call again — the same judgment call that led him to wait two days. “Lo que usted sintió va en su historial y puede cambiar cómo le revisamos” tells him that the call produces a specific clinical change. That is a reason to call.
What the nurse does after the call: pulls Aurelio’s Monday session notes. His post-treatment blood pressure was 96/54. The session note reads: “Patient tolerated HD well, BP stable.” 96/54 before standing and walking to the transport van is not stable by any definition the nephrologist would accept. The chair nurse who cleared Aurelio for transport at 96/54 either did not take a standing blood pressure or did not document it. This is a chart review finding, a conversation with the Monday nurse, and a notation in Aurelio’s standing orders for a post-treatment standing blood pressure before every session.
The nephrologist flag: UFR on Monday was 12 mL/kg/hour — aggressive for a 71-year-old with baseline systolics in the 110s. A conversation about reducing the UFR target and lengthening the session by 15 minutes may be warranted. That conversation happens because Aurelio called and a nurse did a structured five-question screen instead of saying “es el cuerpo ajustándose.”
The teaching that prevents the two-day delay
Aurelio waited two days because no one told him post-session dizziness was a reportable clinical event. He called it “el cuerpo ajustándose” in his mind — the phrase he had probably heard from a nurse or a family member — and waited to see if it would happen again. His daughter made him call.
The teaching that closes this gap happens at the chair, at the end of the session, before the patient stands:
“Señor Peña, antes de pararse, quiero decirle tres cosas que necesito que me diga si las siente — hoy, o después de cualquier sesión. Primera: mareo, o la sensación de que se va a caer cuando se para. Segunda: falta de aire aunque esté sentado. Tercera: que se le pongan frías las manos o los pies de repente. Si siente cualquiera de estas tres antes de irse de aquí, dígamelo antes de pararse de la silla. Si las siente en el carro o en casa ese mismo día, llámenos ese mismo día — no espere al próximo tratamiento para avisarnos. ¿Tiene el número guardado?”
(Mr. Peña, before you stand up, I want to tell you three things that I need you to tell me if you feel them — today, or after any session. First: dizziness, or the feeling that you are going to fall when you stand. Second: shortness of breath even while sitting. Third: your hands or feet suddenly feeling cold. If you feel any of these three before you leave here, tell me before you get up from the chair. If you feel them in the car or at home that same day, call us that same day — do not wait until the next treatment to let us know. Do you have the number saved?)
The phrase “ese mismo día” — that same day — is the instruction Aurelio did not have. He knew the dialysis center number. He did not know that the dizziness in the car was a “same day” call. He thought it might be something you mentioned at the next session if it happened again. “Llámenos ese mismo día” removes the judgment call about whether to call by naming the timing threshold explicitly.
What the three failure modes have in common
Jorge’s call from the car, Rosa’s summaries in English, and Aurelio’s two-day delay are all versions of the same problem: the dialysis nurse’s clinical contact with the patient is mediated by something that was never designed to carry clinical information.
The transport van that carries Jorge from his apartment to the dialysis center is not a clinical communication channel. The speakerphone in Rosa’s car is not a clinical communication channel. The two-day silence between Aurelio’s dizziness and his Wednesday morning call is not a clinical communication channel.
But clinical information travels through all of them anyway — imperfectly, delayed, filtered through Rosa’s expertise and Jorge’s deference and Aurelio’s uncertainty about what counts as reportable.
The dialysis nurse who speaks Spanish and understands why a patient asks “¿está bien que vaya?” from a moving car knows that the question is not logistical. It is clinical permission request dressed as a scheduling call. The nurse who hears Rosa answering for Jorge knows that Rosa is not obstructing the clinical conversation. She is filling a structural gap that the nurse’s open-ended question left available. The nurse who hears “me mareé en el carro” two days later knows that Aurelio did not delay because he was careless. He delayed because the system never told him which category of experience generates a same-day call.
These three calls are not problems with Spanish-speaking patients. They are problems with information architecture in a treatment system that assumes patients know what is reportable, when to report it, and to whom — assumptions that do not hold for any patient, in any language, who has not been explicitly taught otherwise.
The Spanish phrases every dialysis nurse needs for in-transit calls
For the pre-arrival screen:
“Antes de que llegue, tengo cuatro preguntas rápidas. ¿Se pesó esta mañana? ¿Puede respirar bien sentado en el carro? ¿Tiene náuseas en este momento? ¿Cómo se siente comparado con cómo se siente normalmente antes del tratamiento?”
(Before you arrive, I have four quick questions. Did you weigh yourself this morning? Can you breathe well sitting in the car? Do you have nausea right now? How do you feel compared to how you normally feel before treatment?)
For redirecting the family member on speakerphone:
“Señor [nombre], usted mismo — ¿cómo se siente ahora mismo? [to family member:] Gracias — y también quiero escucharle a él directamente por un momento. [back to patient:] Señor [nombre] — ¿le duele algo?”
(Mr. [name], yourself — how do you feel right now? [to family member:] Thank you — and I also want to hear from him directly for a moment. [back to patient:] Mr. [name] — does anything hurt?)
For the post-session dizziness call:
“Hizo bien en llamar. Lo que describe es importante. Tengo cinco preguntas rápidas. ¿Cuándo empezó el mareo — al pararse de la silla o más tarde en el carro? ¿Se oscureció la vista? ¿Pudo salir del carro solo? ¿Cuánto tiempo duró? ¿Cómo está ahora mismo?”
(You did the right thing calling. What you describe is important. I have five quick questions. When did the dizziness start — when you stood from the chair or later in the car? Did your vision go dark? Could you get out of the car alone? How long did it last? How are you right now?)
For the end-of-session teaching:
“Antes de pararse, quiero que sepa tres cosas que necesito que me diga ese mismo día si las siente: mareo al pararse, falta de aire aunque esté sentado, manos o pies fríos de repente. Si son antes de salir de aquí, dígamelo a mí. Si son en el carro o en casa, llámenos ese mismo día. No al próximo tratamiento. Ese mismo día.”
(Before you stand up, I want you to know three things you need to tell me that same day if you feel them: dizziness when standing, shortness of breath even while sitting, hands or feet suddenly cold. If they happen before you leave here, tell me. If they happen in the car or at home, call us that same day. Not at the next treatment. That same day.)
Frequently asked questions
What Spanish do I use to assess a dialysis patient over the phone who missed his last session and is calling from the car on the way in?
Complete a rapid four-question phone screen before the patient arrives so the charge nurse can prepare the chair: “Antes de que llegue, tengo cuatro preguntas rápidas. ¿Se pesó esta mañana? ¿Cuánto marcó la báscula comparado con lo que pesa normalmente cuando viene?” (Before you arrive, I have four quick questions. Did you weigh yourself this morning? What did the scale say compared to what you normally weigh when you come in?) If no scale: “¿Sus tobillos o piernas se ven más hinchados que el viernes?” (Do your ankles or legs look more swollen than Friday?) “¿Puede respirar bien sentado en el carro ahora mismo? ¿Siente que le falta el aire?” (Can you breathe well sitting in the car right now? Do you feel short of breath?) “¿Tiene náuseas en este momento, o ya se le quitaron desde el lunes?” (Do you have nausea right now, or has it gone away since Monday?) “¿Cómo se siente ahora comparado con cómo se suele sentir antes del tratamiento? ¿Peor, igual, o mejor?” (How do you feel now compared to how you usually feel before treatment? Worse, the same, or better?) End with a clear arrival instruction: “Ya lo espero en [tiempo]. Voy a avisarle a la enfermera de cargo de que no vino el lunes para que podamos revisarle bien cuando llegue. No necesita hacer nada más — solo venga.” (I am already expecting you in [time]. I am going to let the charge nurse know you did not come Monday so we can check you well when you arrive. You do not need to do anything else — just come.) Orthopnea on the breathing question is an emergency department conversation before the session starts, not a UFR modification discovered at the chair.
How do I assess whether a dialysis patient who missed a session is safe to proceed, using Spanish?
Two domains determine whether the missed-session patient goes to the dialysis chair or the emergency department: respiratory status and weight gain. Respiratory: “¿Puede respirar bien acostado, o necesita sentarse para respirar cómodo?” (Can you breathe well lying down, or do you need to sit up to breathe comfortably?) Orthopnea with two missed sessions is pulmonary edema until the chest film says otherwise. Weight: More than 3–4 kg above dry weight since the last completed session is a nephrologist call before the session starts, not a modified UFR target discovered at the chair. Neurological: “¿Se siente confundido o le cuesta más de lo normal acordarse de cosas?” (Do you feel confused or is it harder than usual to remember things?) Uremic encephalopathy after a missed session can present subtly. Chest pain: “¿Siente algún dolor o presión en el pecho?” (Do you feel any pain or pressure in your chest?) If any of these four are present, the nephrologist call happens before the patient enters the parking lot.
What do I say in Spanish to a family member who keeps interpreting for the patient on a speakerphone call when I need to hear directly from the patient?
Redirect without correcting. Address the patient by name with “usted mismo” before the family member can summarize: “Señor [nombre], usted mismo — ¿puede respirar bien ahora en el carro?” (Mr. [name], yourself — can you breathe well right now in the car?) If the family member answers first: “Gracias, señora — y también quiero escucharle a él directamente, para asegurarme de entender bien cómo se siente. Señor [nombre] — ¿le duele algo en este momento?” (Thank you, ma’am — and I also want to hear from him directly, to make sure I understand how he feels. Mr. [name] — does anything hurt right now?) After the patient’s direct answers to the safety questions, turn to the family member as household observer: “Señora, usted lo conoce mejor que nadie — ¿notó algo diferente en él ayer, en cómo caminaba o en su apetito?” (Ma’am, you know him better than anyone — did you notice anything different in him yesterday, in how he walked or in his appetite?) This uses the family member’s genuine expertise — household observation — without making her the interpreter for the patient’s first-person symptom report.
What Spanish do I use when a dialysis patient calls two days after treatment to report dizziness in the car on the way home?
Validate first, then screen: “Señor [nombre], hizo bien en llamar. Lo que describe es exactamente el tipo de cosa que necesitamos saber. Tengo cinco preguntas rápidas para entender bien lo que pasó.” (Mr. [name], you did the right thing calling. What you describe is exactly the kind of thing we need to know. I have five quick questions to understand what happened.) (1) Timing: “¿Cuánto tiempo después de que terminó su tratamiento se sintió mareado — fue al pararse de la silla, o más tarde en el carro?” (2) Character: “¿Fue sensación de giro, o se le oscureció la vista, o sintió que se iba a desmayar?” (3) Severity: “¿Tuvo que sujetarse de algo? ¿Pudo salir del carro solo?” (4) Duration: “¿Cuánto tiempo duró — unos minutos, o más?” (5) Current: “¿Esta mañana cómo se siente? ¿Tiene mareo, falta de aire, o dolor en el pecho ahora?” After the screen, review the session notes from that day (post-treatment BP, UFR), flag the nephrologist, document the event in the chart, and tell the patient: “Lo que usted sintió va en su historial y puede cambiar cómo le revisamos antes de que salga la próxima vez.” (What you felt goes in your record and may change how we check you before you leave next time.)
What Spanish can I teach a dialysis patient to report post-session symptoms to the nurse before he leaves the chair?
Three symptoms, taught at the end of the session before the patient stands: “Antes de pararse, quiero que sepa tres cosas que necesito que me diga si las siente — hoy o después de cualquier sesión. Primera: mareo o sensación de que se va a caer cuando se pare. Segunda: falta de aire aunque esté sentado. Tercera: manos o pies que se sienten fríos de repente. Si siente cualquiera de estas tres antes de salir de aquí, dígamelo a mí antes de pararse. Si las siente en el carro o en casa ese mismo día, llámenos ese mismo día — no espere al próximo tratamiento. ¿Tiene el número guardado en su teléfono?” (Before you stand up, I want you to know three things I need you to tell me if you feel them — today or after any session. First: dizziness or feeling like you will fall when you stand. Second: shortness of breath even while sitting. Third: hands or feet that suddenly feel cold. If you feel any of these three before you leave here, tell me before you stand. If you feel them in the car or at home that same day, call us that same day — do not wait until the next treatment. Do you have the number saved in your phone?) “Ese mismo día” (that same day) is the phrase that eliminates the two-day delay. The patient who knows dizziness after dialysis is a same-day call does not wait for his daughter to tell him to call.
ClinicaLingo builds 10-minute clinical-Spanish scenarios for working US nurses, EMTs, PAs and front-desk staff. Try 29 free scenarios — no login required — or download the free 50-phrase PDF for tomorrow’s shift. Also see: Spanish for dialysis nurses, Spanish for dialysis transport nurses, Spanish for hemodialysis nurses, When a family member is a witness, not an interpreter, When the interpreter is on hold, Medication reconciliation in Spanish, Discharge instructions in Spanish, and the full blog index.