Overcoming Language Barriers towards Improved Healthcare Delivery among Hispanic Communities

Evidence-Based Practice Proposal: Overcoming Language Barriers as a Means of Contributing towards Improved Healthcare Delivery among Hispanic Communities
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Abstract
The increased diversity of American communities has equally propagated increased challenges for healthcare workers as they administer services to immigrants. This has resulted in a language barrier between these two groups that often impedes effective communication and subsequent service delivery. This is particularly the case with Hispanic immigrants whose numbers have increased significantly across the US. There is a need for healthcare workers to better understand their patients through their culture and language. This can significantly improve communication between patients and healthcare workers, and in doing so ultimately improve healthcare service delivery. For this reason, this proposal explores the challenges plaguing interactions between healthcare workers and Hispanic immigrants based on the language barrier between said groups. At the same time, it proposes solutions centered on improving the language, in this case Spanish, fluency and literacy of healthcare workers as well as their cultural competence as a means of improving healthcare service delivery and attaining increased rates of patient satisfaction. This proposal, if implemented, promises to help better understand the challenges existing between healthcare workers and Hispanic immigrants. Similarly, it outlines viable action plans that healthcare workers and facilities can implement and regularly evaluate as a means of ensuring continuous improvement from healthcare workers on matters of overcoming language barriers and developing cultural competency. In essence, this proposal seeks to help overcome the challenges surrounding healthcare service delivery to Hispanic immigrants and their communities by fostering increased participation of healthcare workers in the culture and language of said immigrants. In doing so, this proposal hopes to improve healthcare service delivery and patient satisfaction among Hispanic immigrants and their communities.
Keywords: cultural competency, language barrier, healthcare, immigrants
Evidence-Based Practice Proposal: Overcoming Language Barriers as a Means of Contributing towards Improved Healthcare Delivery among Hispanic Communities
Introduction
The modern healthcare landscape is one that is constantly changing and adapting not only to the incorporation of new technologies, but also the adoption of new best practices. As such, overcoming language barriers in the healthcare setting has become a major concern for patients, professionals, and facilities in equal measure. Seeing as communication has been established as being fundamental to efficient healthcare service delivery, overcoming language barriers, particularly in communities with significant immigrant populations, has become integral to improving the delivery of care. This proposal highlights the existent literature on the subject in addition to proposing a solution to the problem as well as implementation and dissemination plans on matters of improving care delivery in Hispanic communities by overcoming the language barriers between patients and healthcare professiona...