Cultural Competence for Healthcare Encounters Name Institution Affiliation Course Instructor Date Cultural Competence for Healthcare Encounters Cultural competency in health care inherently h ...

---

Cultural Competence for Healthcare Encounters
Name
Institution Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Date

Cultural Competence for Healthcare Encounters
Cultural competency in health care inherently helps ensure equity in and efficacy of provided care as the population of the United States is becoming increasingly diverse. The paper focuses on a critical aspect of culturally competent care, language access services (LAS), and their bearing on effective communication within health care. Drawing on insights from Chapter 8 of Diversity and Cultural Competence in Health Care: A Systems Approach and the workshop Improving Cultural Competency and Awareness for Health Professionals, this summary outlines some of the key strategies for addressing the major challenges of language barriers and nurturing cultural comprehension in healthcare.
The chapter underlines that language barriers pose severe threats to good healthcare, especially for limited-English-proficient (LEP) patients. Linguistic diversity in the United States creates the necessity for healthcare providers to make accommodations for communication to ensure safety and quality of care (Dreachslin et al., 2012). Where patients cannot comprehend or remain vague about symptoms and risks to health outbursts, reflected by the regulatory and legislative initiatives that urge auditory access services. Since 2000, programs have been put in place to fill this gap by ensuring that healthcare organizations adopt LAS in their safety and quality protocols (Dreachslin et al., 2012).
The video further elucidates those principles by articulating that the core of cultural competence rests on knowledge about the diverse ways patients interpret and talk about health (iha4health, 2024). Health experts are encou