Chapter 1 Building Cultural and Linguistic Competence

Chapter 1   Building Cultural and Linguistic Competence

Complete Chapter Questions With Answers

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

1) Which action would a hospital administrator take to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of Spanish-speaking community members?

1. Hire professional staff from different Spanish-speaking countries.
2. Ensure that all health care workers speak Spanish.
3. Ensure that all signage is posted in Spanish as well as English.
4. Ensure health services are in varying locations.

Answer:  1

Explanation:  1. Hiring professional staff from different Spanish-speaking countries would create a foundation for the variations in the language and culture of the different countries, and aid in providing cultural and linguistic competence to meet the health needs of this population.

2. Ensuring all health care workers speak Spanish would benefit this population, but does not necessarily guarantee that cultural and linguistic competence would result.
3. Spanish signage would aid with patient understanding, but this action also assumes that all of the patient population is literate.
4. Ensuring health services are in varying locations meets the needs of many populations, but is not necessarily a component of linguistic and cultural competence.

Cognitive Level:  Applying

Patient Need:  Psychosocial Integrity

Nursing/Integrated Concepts:  Nursing Process: Implementation

Learning Outcome:  LO02 – Describe the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care.

2) On which criterion would the Human Resources manager focus when identifying interpreters to support the care of patients with limited English proficiency?

1. Proficient in health language terminology
2. Availability of family members
3. Be of the same ethnic background of the patients
4. Be on 24-hour call

Answer:  1

Explanation:  1. Interpreters providing language assistance must be proficient in health language terminology in order to provide accurate information to a patient in their own language.

2. Family members are not to be used for language assistance or interpretation unless absolutely necessary, or on request by the patient, as they may not be able to provide objective impartial information.
3. While it is helpful to have the same ethnic background of the patients for whom language assistance is provided, it is not necessary.
4. An interpreter may not be able to be on 24-hour call, but back-up mechanisms should be in place to provide language assistance when a designated interpreter is not available.

Cognitive Level:  Applying

Patient Need:  Safe and Effective Care Environment

Patient Need Sub:  Management of Care

Nursing/Integrated Concepts:  Nursing Process: Assessment

Learning Outcome:  LO02 – Describe the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care.

3) A health care organization is incorporating culturally and linguistically appropriate services into the strategic plan. In which areas of the plan will these services be reflected? Select all that apply:

1. Goals
2. Policies
3. Operational plans
4. Management accountability
5. Internal audits

Answer:  1, 2, 3, 4

Explanation:  1. To support cultural and linguistically appropriate services, a health care organization needs to outline clear goals in the strategic plan.

2. To support cultural and linguistically appropriate services, a health care organization needs to outline policies within the strategic plan.
3. A health care organization needs to outline operational plans to support cultural and linguistically appropriate services within the strategic plan.
4. A health care organization needs to identify management accountability for cultural and linguistically appropriate services within the strategic plan.
5. Internal audits are used to evaluate culturally and linguistically appropriate services within a health care organization.

Cognitive Level:  Applying

Patient Need:  Health Promotion and Maintenance

Nursing/Integrated Concepts:  Nursing Process: Implementation

Learning Outcome:  LO02 – Describe the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care.

4) Why does a health care organization maintain a current demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the patients receiving care in the hospital?

1. Ensure grievances are resolved.
2. Plan and implement culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
3. Plan for culturally appropriate continuing education for the staff.
4. Develop partnerships with community members.

Answer:  2

Explanation:  1. Maintaining a current demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the patients receiving care in the hospital does not ensure that grievances are resolved. The health care organization must ensure that the grievance process is culturally and linguistically sensitive and capable of resolving cross-cultural conflicts.

2. Healthcare organizations should maintain a current demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the community to accurately plan for and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the service area.
3. Maintaining a current demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the patients receiving care in the hospital is not done to plan for culturally appropriate continuing education for staff. Planning for ongoing education and training in culturally and linguistically appropriate services would be based on the patient demographic, but not on the epidemiological profile of the community.
4. Maintaining a current demographic, cultural, and epidemiological profile of the patients receiving care in the hospital is not done to develop partnerships with community members. Partnerships with communities are used to facilitate community and patient involvement when designing and implementing culturally and linguistically appropriate service-related activities.

Cognitive Level:  Analyzing

Patient Need:  Health Promotion and Maintenance

Nursing/Integrated Concepts:  Nursing Process: Evaluation

Learning Outcome:  LO02 – Describe the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care.