Question

Why is the CLAS Standards or the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services important in nursing practice?

Answer 1

Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services is a way to improve the quality of services provided to all individuals, which will help reduce health disparities and achieve health equity. Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services is about respect and responsiveness. Respect the whole individual and Respond to the individual’s health needs and preferences.

Its principal standard is to 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.

In the nursing profession organizational governance and leadership promotes Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.

Recruitment, promotion, educate and train and support a culturally, and linguistically governance, leadership, and workforce are responsive to the population in the service area.

To offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate access to all health care and services. Inform all individuals of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing. This should ensure the competence of individuals, and the use of untrained individuals as interpreters should be avoided.

This provides easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials in the languages commonly used by the masses.

The services establishes the cultural and appropriate goals, policies, and management accountability, and incorporate in the organization's planning and operations.

This helps to collect and maintain accurate and reliable data to monitor and evaluate the impact on health equity, outcomes and to inform service delivery.

This should conduct regular assessments of community health assets and partner with the community to design needs and use the results to plan, design, implement, evaluate policies, practices, and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness

Finally the standards are laid to communicate the organization's progress in implementing and sustaining Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, to all stakeholders, constituents, and the general public, which is very important during the nursing practice..