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.