HSCI715 Discussion Traditions and Biases

Hello Everyone,

In line with my selected topic, Significance of Cultural Competence to Access of Care among African Americans in the US, the concept of language barriers influence on access of healthcare in the US emerged quite intriguing. I drew insights from Spector (2016, p. 11) reference to the US as a home for people from all backgrounds. According to Spector (2016), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 recognizes the fundamentality of protecting the rights of every individual to access to any benefits funded by the Federal government of the United States. Access to these provisions should not be barred from any person irrespective of their race, color or nationality of origin. The concept of language barrier falls under the element of cultural diversity and nationality of origin. In this light, denying an individual who speaks another language other than English due to their incompetence in the language is a violation of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act 1964. Consequently, a conversation aimed at paving way to acquisition of knowledge and capabilities among healthcare providers on how to use cultural competence to ensure access to care for all is crucial because it paves way questioning the trends, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities available for attainment of the fundamental goal.

The foundation of equality in access of healthcare services is not only established in the legal framework of the US but also in the Bible. In his commentary of Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Harmon (2021) notes that all people are equal in Christ Jesus. As such, as a home for diverse communities, the US is synchronized with the will of God by paying attention to accomplishing equality. However, since not everything is enforceable by the law, the concept of code of conduct of healthcare providers emerges as crucial provisions to enhance equality.

Besides, gaining support from legal to biblical to ethical perspectives, equality in access of care despite language barriers requires engagement of all stakeholders. As Squires (2018) notes, with the population of people with limited competency in English language on the increase in the US, the need to have all stakeholders brought on board to mitigate the problem of access to care grows on a daily basis. I think by enrolling people with limited competency in using English language in classes is one step. However, literature on evidence based approaches to this challenge indicate that training healthcare providers on cultural competence works better than just English language training for the people with poor capacity to speak English.

As Olani et al. (2023) notes, as long as there are people with limited capacity to communicate in English language, there will always be the need for healthcare providers to approach the challenge in the most effective way possible. The module one of the course as well as the literature I accessed has emphasized that cultural competence prepares healthcare providers to meet the needs of all by enabling them to acknowledge the cultural differences thus challenging them to use available means to ensure that the target goal of equality is achieved.

References

Harmon, M. S. (2021). Galatians: Evangelical biblical theology commentary. Lexham Press.

Olani, A. B., Olani, A. B., Muleta, T. B., Rikitu, D. H., & Disassa, K. G. (2023). Impacts of language barriers on healthcare access and quality among Afaan oromoo-speaking patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. BMC Health Services Research, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09036-z

Spector, R. E. (2016). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Pearson.

Squires, A. (2018). Strategies for overcoming language barriers in healthcare. Nursing Management, 49(4), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.numa.0000531166.24481.15