Interpersonal Awareness

A requirement for all health care professions is the ability to be culturally competent. This means that despite a person’s background and what language they speak, one must be able to keep an open mind about the differences that sets as a barrier between professional and patient. Hence to ensure that a patient is treated well despite the differences the CLAS standard exists mainly for that.

CLAS standards exist to ensure that patients receives the best and most fair care while they are being treated in a professional’s presence. This means that despite a patient’s background, ethnicity, or difference shouldn’t matter and that what really matters is that they are being treated fairly and well as they are the patients. CLAS standards also exist to help prevent any health care disparities.

The cultural competence requirements for radiologic technology are as followed:  

-Recognizing, respecting and understanding a patient’s belief, needs, and values.

-Strongly encourage the patient to participate in the decision making of their treatment as it is their body and their right to decide what they prefer and want to do.

-Utilizing resources available when it comes to communications, such as an interpreter if needed or simplifying medical terms so patient understands what is going on

On the other hand, the similar CLAS standards are as followed:

-Principal standard:  Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs. 

-Communication and Language Assistance: Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area. 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.  

As the list above contains only a couple of the requirements to get a clear view of the difference between the two. The ultimate goal is to have a health care system where a patient is treated well and fairly without prejudice in regards to where they come from, their beliefs, their skin color and how different they are.

All in all, personally, I believe that despite what profession or occupation whether it’s from the health care profession to the business occupation all patients/clients should be treated with the utmost fairness and best care available despite their background. At the end of the day, a person is not defined by being the same as everyone but the differences that makes them unique and who they are.

Learning Goals

After having taken a look at the results of the Quality and Culture Quiz, I realize where my flaws lay and where I needed to learn more. In this sense, my three personal goals are: 

·         --Not allow language barriers or cultural differences stand in between me and my profession.

o   The reason is because English is my second language. Which means that my culture is different from the American way, my thought processes and understanding are different because I view things from a different point of view. I view and see through my understanding of how things are and they should be. Due to the fact that my background and ethnicity is different I tend to think more of what the norm for my culture is rather than view from a neutral standpoint. But in a way, I understand how others from a different ethnicity feels because I know what it’s like to be misunderstood and to not fully comprehend something.

·         --Stay away from norms, whether they are American norms, Asian norms, African-American norms, etc.

o   The reason is because viewing and judging things based on a norm makes one’s judgment become clouded. It’s also a habit I have when it comes to basing things off in my culture. As stated above I tend to resort to my cultural norms, such as a daughter must do house chores and work hard while the sons provide food on the table for the family, keeps a roof over the family’s head and protect the family. I don’t resort to these norms. I’ve come a long way from years back to where I am now. Instead of letting my parents tell me the old fashioned traditional ways of life such as the examples provided above, I tend to argue my case. We’re in a new age where males and females, sons and daughters are treated equally have equal opportunities.

·         --Learn about cultural difference as much as possible…understanding different cultures in general.

o   This would require outside work and research. I’ve always been interested in learning about cultural background and histories, how one culture comes to be or rather how it functions in community. I feel that learning about different cultures in general is very helpful and would help one understand better where their patient is coming from and how they see things.

By the end of this course, I hope to have met these goals. To me, these goals are important and would widen my point of view as a profession and allow me to see from a perspective different from my own. As they would help me better myself as a person and in my profession.