Questions to Ask a Patient in Spanish

00:01 Whenever giving care, asking the right questions to understand the patient's need is critical and the foundational step to providing care.

00:12 Here are a few questions you can ask your patients in Spanish and some cues you can give to understand the response.

00:21 You might ask the patient if they have pain in a certain area.

00:26 Now, remember, we recently learned the word for pain.

00:31 Do you remember what that is? "Dolor!" So to ask, (Do you have pain?) Say, "¿Tiene dolor? " Then as a response, you might adjust the level or the location of the pain.

00:48 For the level of pain, you can use numbers.

00:53 So let's use a scale of one to ten.

00:57 In Spanish, you can count to ten.

01:00 by saying, "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez." "Diez" means 10.

01:15 "Diez es mas dolor" which mean more pain.

01:21 So ten is more pain.

01:26 "Menos dolor" would indicate less pain.

01:31 So you might ask, “Tiene dolor?" Then point to a body part or say a body part, which we’ll learn body parts later in our learning together.

01:43 After you have identified the area of pain, then determine the level of pain by saying, “Cual es tu nivel de dolor?" "Diez" which means 10, "es mas dolor," So ten is more pain.

02:04 "Uno es menos delor” Then wait for the response.

02:10 As we learn body parts, you might become more comfortable asking specifically, where does it hurt? You can ask this by saying, "¿Dónde le duele?" "Donde" means where.

02:25 And "duele" is a conjugation of "dolor", which means pain.

02:31 Other critical questions you might ask include.

02:36 "¿Qué medicamentos toma?" which means (What medications do you take?) So, "que" means what.

02:49 "Medicamentos" means medicine.

02:52 Let’s say that again. "Medicamentos." "Toma" is a conjugation of "tomar" which means to take.

03:01 So, "Que medicamentos toma?" Another life saving question might be, ¿Es alérgico a algo? Or (Are you allergic to anything?) This is powerful.

03:19 "Alergico" is allergy and "algo" is anything.

03:23 So, "¿Es alérgico a algo?" is (Are you allergic to anything?) The next question I want you to consider is this.

03:32 "¿Ha estado en el hospital antes?" (Have you been in the hospital before?) Your responses to these questions might be "Si" which means yes. "No" which means no, or "nunca" which means never, or "ninguna" which means none.

03:53 So, basically, any answer you hear that begins with an N is No.

03:59 The last question I want you to ask is "¿Tienes preguntas?" or (Do you have any questions?) "Preguntas" means questions. So, "¿Tienes preguntas?" So, here's what I want you to do.

04:14 We've moved from vocabulary to phrases.

04:18 Practice these phrases out loud.

04:22 Taste the words on your tongue.

04:25 Remember, give yourself permission to be bad. Keep trying.

04:32 "Tienes preguntas?" "No?" Okay, then go forth and practice!