The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) are steps designed to improve healthcare quality and equity and abolish healthcare disparities. The CLAS standards provide blueprints to healthcare personnel and organizations to implement appropriate services linguistically and culturally and achieve the targets. These standards have been a practical framework in providing culturally sensitive healthcare. For instance, the principal standard states that the kind of services and care provided should be diversified, high-quality, understandable, effective, and equitable to satisfy different cultural needs and practices.
Containing four overarching goals, Healthy People 2020 is an initiative that envisions a society whose people live long and healthy lives. Social determinants of health are the environmental conditions found where people are born or live, play, work, and worship. Social determinants of health include access to resources to meet daily needs, quality education, social support, safe and affordable transport, and quality and affordable health services. These and other social factors directly influence our health status.
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Federalism refers to the dual system of federal and state governance, limiting the federal government's jurisdiction. The federal government retains some responsibilities and powers that affect healthcare. States have no control over taxation rules giving them a limited ability to raise funds. Contradicting roles in federal systems leads to healthcare systems that do not deliver healing, but rather commodities to be sold, incentivized, quantified, and bought, leading to a fragmentation in the healthcare delivery system (Stange, 2009).
The professional Code of Ethics for nurses stipulates advocacy as a nursing responsibility (Cherry & Jacobs, 2016). Nurses act as advocates for their patients. In the same spirit, nurses should also lobby for their professional interests. Activism provides a voice for our professional concerns, pushing for changes to better the profession, positively affecting my practice and career.
I believe I can be an agent of change. Change is described as a universal constant. It is not possible to avoid it in our workplaces. Faced by either internal or external influences that may drive growth, I would be more than willing to be actively involved in improving and bettering the profession.
Professional unions or bodies should be responsible for advocacy or lobbying for challenges facing nurses. The American Nurses Association (ANA) was officially endorsed in 1946 to lobby for employment-related issues affecting nurses. Collective bargaining, the process of active negotiations between trade unions and employers, is used to present nurses' interests at workplaces (Hagedorn et al., 2016).
Nurses should be actively involved in politics. By being involved in law-making policies, nurses can substantially influence the profession by presenting issues affecting nurses in parliaments and be a means of advocating for our patients in a better way. Nurse politicians can also safeguard the nursing profession from unhealthy policies.
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Hagedorn, J., Paras, C. A., Greenwich, H., & Hagopian, A. (2016). The Role of Labor Unions in Creating Working Conditions That Promote Public Health. American journal of public health , 106 (6), 989–995. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303138
National CLAS Standards - The Office of Minority Health. (2018). Retrieved 4 September 2020, from https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53
Nursing advocacy. (2020). Retrieved 4 September 2020, from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/
Resources - Florida Nurses Association. (2020). Retrieved 4 September 2020, from https://www.floridanurse.org/page/Resources
Stange K. C. (2009). The problem of fragmentation and the need for integrative solutions. Annals of family medicine , 7 (2), 100–103. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.971
