Article: Language Gap Widens between South Florida Patients, Nursing Home Staffers.

By Diane C. Lade, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 28--Nursing assistant Marie Alexis speaks fluent Creole and good English, but little Spanish while some of the nursing home residents she cares for are Spanish-speakers who know very little English and no Creole.

The language gap can complicate even a simple re...uest. So the resident and the aide sometimes will get out what's called a communication board, originally designed to help patients muted by a stroke.

"They say agua. They show you the picture, and it's a glass of water," said Alexis, who works at Palm Garden of West Palm Beach.

She ...

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