Nur440 Last Paper
Nurse A
January 12, 2013
Teacher A
Nur 440
INOVA Alexandria is a great place to have a baby. There is a great group of doctors, nurses, and other specialist ready to help bring life into the world. State of the art equipment fills the three large operating rooms, and a level 3 NICU awaits upstairs should the need arise. The remodeled private rooms give the ambiance of home while patients have access to a completely stocked kitchen to complete the at home experience. This sounds wonderful, but if you do not speak english, your care may be less than perfect. Healthy People 2020 has a goal to Improve the health and well-being of women, infants, children, and families (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). Healthy People 2020 states that pregnancy is a great time to find existing health problems or identify health risks for the future. (Healthy People 2020, n.d.) It provides an opportunity to teach women how to care for themselves and their families. The ideal hospital with the ideal care team with the ideal objectives does not matter when a person does not speak english or is hearing impaired. All medical issues are compounded and care becomes much harder to give. A basic admission history can be cut short missing valuable information. Once delivery is achieved and preparations are made for discharge, discharge teaching can be compromised. This is not something that can be ignored. “ Forty-five million Americans speak a language other than English and of these 19 million speak it less than well-or are limited English proficient (Auerbach, et al, 2010). It is our job to see that these people receive the care that they are entitled to. There are many tools available we as nurses need to take it upon ourselves to familiarize ourselves with them, learn to use them, and vow to always take the time to make sure our patients have an understanding of their care.
January 12, 2013
Teacher A
Nur 440
INOVA Alexandria is a great place to have a baby. There is a great group of doctors, nurses, and other specialist ready to help bring life into the world. State of the art equipment fills the three large operating rooms, and a level 3 NICU awaits upstairs should the need arise. The remodeled private rooms give the ambiance of home while patients have access to a completely stocked kitchen to complete the at home experience. This sounds wonderful, but if you do not speak english, your care may be less than perfect. Healthy People 2020 has a goal to Improve the health and well-being of women, infants, children, and families (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). Healthy People 2020 states that pregnancy is a great time to find existing health problems or identify health risks for the future. (Healthy People 2020, n.d.) It provides an opportunity to teach women how to care for themselves and their families. The ideal hospital with the ideal care team with the ideal objectives does not matter when a person does not speak english or is hearing impaired. All medical issues are compounded and care becomes much harder to give. A basic admission history can be cut short missing valuable information. Once delivery is achieved and preparations are made for discharge, discharge teaching can be compromised. This is not something that can be ignored. “ Forty-five million Americans speak a language other than English and of these 19 million speak it less than well-or are limited English proficient (Auerbach, et al, 2010). It is our job to see that these people receive the care that they are entitled to. There are many tools available we as nurses need to take it upon ourselves to familiarize ourselves with them, learn to use them, and vow to always take the time to make sure our patients have an understanding of their care.
References: Aeurbach, A., Karliner, L., Napoles, A.,Nicleach, D.,Perez-Stable, E.,Schillinger, D. (2012) Language Barriersand Understanding of Hospital Discharge Instructions Aeurbach, A. Karliner, L., Kim, S., Meltzer, D. ( 2010) Influence of Language Barriers on Outcomes of Hospital Care for General Medicine Inpatients Chang, C., Smith, S.,Starr, M., Thew, D. (2012) The Deaf Strong Hospital Program: A model of Diversity and Inclusion Training for First-Year Medical Students Healthy People 2020. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://healthypeople.gov. Retrieved on January 14, 2013.