A new language learning program through the Labouré College of Healthcare in Milton is hoping to draw more immigrants in Massachusetts to a career in nursing.
The school’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program — a term that describes courses for non-native English speakers to develop better English language competency — will focus on vocational language learning targeted to support students in the school’s two-year nursing program.
Vocational ESOL programs are an important tool to expand professional opportunities, according to Sharon Scott-Chandler, president and CEO of the nonprofit Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD). ABCD also runs ESOL programs and its director, Bonnie Taylor, was involved in early conversations to develop Labouré’s ESOL program.
“We recognize that English is not required in some lower-paid jobs,” Scott-Chandler said. If low-income residents have limited English, “that kind of locks them into [those] jobs.”
The agency she leads advocates for the communities it serves to be able to look toward some of those higher paying jobs, and especially in professions — like health care — that are particularly thriving in Massachusetts, said Scott-Chandler. So Labouré’s program “is the beginning of something critical,” she said.
A program like Labouré’s has other benefits as well. Training more English language learners to work as nurses can help increase patient comfort.
In a video released by the college, Georgia Nuahn, a graduate of Labouré working as a nurse at Boston Medical Center, described a patient who was struggling to interact with the medical staff there because of the patient’s limited English. “She was refusing her meds, refusing to eat,” Nuahn said of the patient, who wouldn’t let the staff do anything for her.
But Nuahn, an immigrant from Liberia, recognized Gio, or Dan, spoken by some people in Liberia. “I explained to her the benefits of what we were trying to do, [and] so she felt safe,” Nuahn said. The patient also allowed staff to help her get a shower and braid her hair.
“She looked like a whole different person,” Nuahn said. “Being in the hospital, and being sick, and just seeing someone that speaks like you, and looks like you — right then and there is a healing in itself.”
Willie Bodrick, president and CEO of The American City Coalition, which works to address community needs in Boston neighborhoods, said that patient focus is an important consideration. As health care and public health organizations look to address barriers to high-quality care, language access is an important consideration, he said.
“It’s also the comfort of seeing somebody who is from your community serving you in this way. It just goes a long way in the quality of care that we can provide to our community,” he said.
The Labouré program might also help fix a critical need for English-language programs that are job-specific. According to a 2020 survey by The Boston Foundation and the Latino Legacy Fund, of the hundreds of ESOL programs that existed at the time in Greater Boston only 7% prepared English language learners for advanced vocational-based English.
ABCD runs Boston-area Headstart programs, for instance, and has launched vocational ESOL in early childhood education. From that, Scott-Chandler said that “tailoring the program to the industry and to the language with curriculum and internships really helped people progress more quickly.”
The offerings of Labouré’s vocational nursing ESOL program build on the broader benefits of English learning programs by supplementing basic English used to move more easily through daily life with more specific jargon and terminology found in the nursing field.
The rollout of the program may be a boon for other reasons as well. New federal restrictions on who can access health care through Medicaid and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) might further mean that already vulnerable immigrant communities look to increase — and improve — their income streams.
“With federal funding cuts and uncertainty around the basic services our students rely on, there is one thing Labouré can do, and that is further increase access to well-paying careers for our students, giving them the opportunity to reach financial independence and security for themselves and their children,” said Labouré President Lily Hsu in a statement.
Overall, the Labouré program is a “win-win” for the many benefits it will bring to everyone involved, said Scott-Chandler, even as she acknowledged that such programs generally tend not to receive enough investment to support the benefits it can bring to communities.
“The people who are employed learn English; they feel better about their own work and being able to contribute in a unique way,” she said. And patients benefit from having nurses they can communicate with more easily. “These kinds of programs are incredibly important,” she said. “They are life changing.”
