Language and culture significantly affect how patients and clients access and respond to health care services. The National CLAS Standards are a blueprint that guides and enables equal access to quality health services by people of diverse origins and is provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2020). These standards help health professionals communicate effectively and offer high-quality services to diverse populations, reducing health disparities considerably. To complement the achievement of the CLAS standards' overall aims, I apply them in my areas of practice in the following discussed ways.
First, I have adopted and embraced the concepts of cultural humility and offering culturally competent care. Cultural humility refers to maintaining an interpersonal stance and interacting willingly with diverse individuals (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Cultural competence refers to demonstrating respect and understanding to individuals of different cultures (Ritter & Graham, 2017). As a culturally competent nurse, I accommodate people's views, beliefs, and values from other cultures.
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The first encounter with a patient is significant in establishing a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship. While communicating with clients, I use proper skills such as active listening, openness, respect, and simple and understandable language. Where there is a language barrier, we use a proficient interpreter who facilitates the communication process. Furthermore, we offer high-quality care according to our professional training and institutional standards to all individuals, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. In the clinical areas, there are vast printed materials with health messages. We use these media to communicate and provide health education to all individuals.
Nurses must offer culturally competent care because nursing is committed provision of quality and safe care to all and promoting social justice. Furthermore, most patients a nurse interacts with are from different cultures, and culturally incompetent care is ineffective and costly. To improve cultural competence in our organization, I propose the integration of continuous educative sessions on the issue for nurses. With such a forum, nurses can share their experiences, enlighten colleagues on dealing with different circumstances, and motivate them to adopt this fundamental concept in nursing practice.
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ritter, L.A., Graham, D.H. (2017). Multicultural Health (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. ISBN: 9781284021028
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2020). CLAS Standards . Think Cultural Health. https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas/standards
