This year "In Other
Words" reported on numerous studies involving
healthcare and cultural competence.
For those who are new subscribers to
Language Line Services' healthcare
newsletter, or who may have missed an issue,
following are twelve reports, studies and
papers you don't want to miss.
Do you know of additional cultural
research your fellow healthcare
professionals would find interesting? Let us
know at healthletter@languageline.com.
Thank you!
The
Joint Commission Seeks Your
Input
The Joint Commission is asking for
feedback on proposed revisions to both the
Patient Rights and Responsibilities (RI) and
the Provision of Care (PC) chapters for the
Ambulatory Health Care, Critical Access
Hospital, Home Care, Hospital, and
Office-Based Surgery programs. Included are
several standards related to effective
communication, including standards supporting
the provision of interpreters and standards
that address respect for cultural health beliefs.
Deadlines for feedback on proposed
revisions are December 31, 2007 for the
Patient Rights and Responsibilities (RI)
chapter and January 17, 2008 for the
Provision of Care (PC) chapter.
To review the revised standards and
provide feedback, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/Standards/SII/
Plain Talk in
Healthcare
As a healthcare provider, are you easy to
understand?
Are the signs and educational literature
that you use readable and clear? Do you take
into account different cultures and languages
when communicating?
Information on how to better communicate
and improve service is available on the
Internet.
For example, see the Plain Language
Association's
web site
http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org
American
Community Reports: Hispanics,
Blacks, and Asians
These reports present portraits of
racial and ethnic
population groups in the United States
based on data from the 2004 American
Community Survey, and published earlier this
year.
The American Community - Hispanics:
2004
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-03.pdf
The American Community - Blacks: 2004
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-04.pdf
The American Community - Asians: 2004
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-05.pdf
Heart Attack
Survival Discussion Kit for
Spanish Speakers
The National Heart Lung Blood Institute
(http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/)
combined elements
from the "Act in Time to Heart Attack
Signs"
and the "Your Heart, Your Life"
campaigns to
develop this Heart Attack Survival Discussion
Kit for Spanish Speakers.
You can order item #KT-025 at the NHLBI store
(http://emall.nhlbihin.net/product2.asp?sku=KT-025)
for just $7.50 each. Want to see the
actual items from the toolkit? See the NHLBI
publications for Latinos page
(http://emall.nhlbihin.net/latino.asp?p=3&h=3&g=68&r=3).
The
Changing
Face of Rural
America
Population dynamics are changing the
profile of rural areas. An influx of
retirees and
ethnic populations brings both challenges and
benefits to small-town America.
An article from the United States
Department of Agriculture, Economic Research
Service.
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April07/Features/Population.htm)
A Second Article: "Rural Hispanics At A
Glance"
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib8/)
Newly Published
Study - Language
Proficiency and Adverse Events in U.S.
Hospitals
Objective: To examine differences
in the
characteristics of adverse events between
English speaking patients and patients with
limited English proficiency in US hospitals.
Full study by subscription
(http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/2/60)
New
Study:
Hispanic Rage About Customer
Service
Are your Spanish-speaking patients happy
with your service? How do you know? Study
proves there's a big difference between how
English- and Spanish-speaking customers respond
to poor service.
For an 8-page summary of this study
conceived and sponsored by Language Line
Services
and conducted by Customer Care Measurement &
Consulting Group, go to
http://languageline.com/page/sprage
and
complete the simple form.
Is Your Nursing
Staff Culturally
Competent?
"To be culturally competent... the
nurse
needs to understand his/her own world views and
those of the patient, while avoiding
stereotyping and misapplication of scientific
knowledge." So begins the article entitled
"Cultural Competence"
(http://www.culturediversity.org/cultcomp.htm)
HHS
and OCR
Team Up for "Effective
Communication in Hospitals"
This year the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) has initiated a program
called "Effective Communication in
Hospitals"
specifically targeting patients that do not
speak English as their primary language or
are hearing impaired.
For more information about this
program go to
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hospitalcommunication.html
"A Health Care Language Services
Implementation Guide" can be found at
http://www.thinkculturalhealth.org
.
Joint
Commission Update - Hospitals,
Language, & Culture Projects
"Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A
Snapshot of the Nation" is a three year,
cross-sectional qualitative study funded by
The California Endowment designed to explore
how 60 hospitals across the country provide
health care to culturally and linguistically
diverse patient populations.
Download the October 2007 project update here
(http://www.jointcommission.org/NR/rdonlyres/E46ED01D-EA80-4A7E-BB7D-DA543AD3DFEC/0/hlc_update.pdf).
Strategies for
Reducing Racial and Ethnic
Disparities in Health Care
On October 11th a team of researchers from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Finding
Answers: Disparities Research for Change"
initiative held a Webcast on how healthcare
organizations, providers and payers can
reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in
their own organizations.
They also launched a publicly available,
interactive, online tool that allows
users to
search for interventions. The database can be
found at
http://www.SolvingDisparities.org/fair_database.
New Research
Findings: English Usage
Among
Hispanics in the United States
Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the
United States of immigrant parents report they
are fluent in English. By contrast, only a
small minority of their parents describe
themselves as skilled English speakers.
Here are complete findings of the Pew
Hispanic Center's "English Usage Among
Hispanics in
the United States"
(http://pewresearch.org/pubs/644/english-language-usage-hispanics)
New
Cultural
Tool: Hmong-Language DVD
Available
The Center for Patient Partnerships at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, has produced
a new Hmong-language DVD with English
subtitles.
"Body and Spirit, Healing Your
Way", is an
18-minute video that explores holistic health
and
healing, featuring interviews with
Hmong-American individuals with distinct
perspectives:
shaman, nurse, patient, young adult, elder.
You can preview the video or order a copy here.
(http://www.law.wisc.edu/patientadvocacy/resources/multicultural.html)
If your friends and
colleagues
would appreciate this quality of cultural,
healthcare
coverage, send them here to subscribe http://www.languageline.com/page/newsletter/
