Living and working outside of Reading PA, I encounter a high percentage of the Spanish population. My facility is very diverse and we employ a good amount of Spanish speaking staff. The standards that are being used in my area are:

2. “Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.”

5. “Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.”

8. “Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.”

We have to accept a resident no matter what and we as nurses must care for them. “Nurses must have compassion and respect for every person no matter what their color, race, religion, background.” (ANA, 2015) One competency that stood out for me was the one where we need to “create an inventory of one’s own values, beliefs, and cultural heritage.” (ANA, 2015) Some people are not accepting of those that are different then them due to their upbringing or their own feelings. As a nurse we must care for anyone no matter what. If we are not comfortable providing care to a certain person, then we need to evaluate ourselves and see what we can do to change those feelings or educate yourself and learn about that particular asset that makes you uncomfortable. Working with a Spanish population has differences and I had to research a bit about the families and their beliefs. A lot of Spanish families are large and they tend to be at the bedside more often as they feel guilty that they had to leave their family member in the facility. They tend to care for their own.

Other populations of resident reside in my facility also. We have learning impaired, mentally challenged, vision/speech impaired, dementia, a whole array of residents from different backgrounds and situations. Collaboration between departments is important to serve the diverse population. Activities provides activities fit for vision impaired, hearing impaired, in Spanish, etc. Therapy helps with those that need accommodations for eating, speech, cognitive, and physical issues, social services helps with finding more independent housing for those that are underserved and may be able to live on their own. I feel our facility serves all populations very well.

One area that I would like to incorporate into our facility is finding a staff member that is competent in sign language. We have a deaf/mute resident and it is hard to communicate with him sometimes. Also, I would like to see our translation phone line updated to provide those Spanish speaking residents a way to communicate if there is not a Spanish speaking staff member on that shift. Our system is not the best and doesn’t work all the time. Another area that could use some work in my facility is working with the vulnerable population. Especially dementia. We used to have a locked dementia unit, however we got rid of it to make our short term rehab unit. I feel we did that population a huge disservice. Now that population are left to wander the units they were placed on and with no structured activities like they had before. Now there is a lot of behavior issues and it seems to be getting worse. Plus lack of training with that population. The staff that worked in the dementia unit were all trained to handle different situations and the staff were consistent. “Nurses still provide leadership in accessing vulnerable populations and figuring out ways to serve them in an environment that often, at a minimum, ignores them and at best serves them inadequately.” (Porter-O’Grady, 2018)

American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Author.

https://www.thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas/stand…

Porter-O’Grady, T. (2018). Leadership advocacy: Bringing nursing to the homeless and underserved. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 42, 115-122. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?u…

Levy, N. (2018). Legal issues…patient advocacy and the nursing role. CINAHL Quick Lesson, 5, CINAHL Information Systems/EBSCO Information Services. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?u… (Links to an

Reply

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? We have qualified writers to help you. We assure you an A+ quality paper that is free from plagiarism. Order now for an Amazing Discount!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!

NB: We do not resell papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.