Summary
Cultural and linguistic diversity hinders the achievement of health equity because they limit proper interaction and communication. The insightful video on “How Effective Healthcare Communication Contributes to Health Equity” provides essential details on how effective communication can promote health equity. The first point mentioned is that health literacy contributes to improved services for culturally and linguistically diverse populations (HRSAtube, 2012).
For instance, better health literacy supports patient-centered communication, which promotes physician-patient interaction. The second point is that effective healthcare communication includes health literacy, cultural competency, and linguistic competency (HRSAtube, 2012). Lastly, health disparity is closely linked to social or economic disadvantage, making the attainment of health equity difficult considering the social determinants of health is a significant limitation in various regions.
Improvement Interventions
My plan as a health expert is to support the implementation of a policy that will advocate for inclusive training whereby health experts and patients will receive training at no cost to enhance cultural and health literacy. In addition, this training will promote effective communication improving health equity. Health literacy training is a program that is provided only for health experts. Therefore, including patients in this journey will help patients understand the basic health information to enhance health outcomes. For instance, patients will understand the need to adhere to the prescriptions as indicated because they will realize the benefits through this training.
Advocacy Techniques
As an advocate for collaborative assistance in communication, I look forward to training as a certified healthcare interpreter. I choose to cultivate a continuous learning and discovery culture to break the negative stereotype that collaborative assistance increases interprofessional conflict (Nutbeam et al., 2018). I can become the pioneer of change by ensuring cultural competence is a mandatory skill considered before hiring a health expert. As a future healthcare interpreter, I can train my peers on the importance of linguistic diversity to encourage them to study communication skills and become more open to interprofessional collaboration.
References
HRSAtube. (2012). How Effective Healthcare Communication Contributes to Health Equity [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Nutbeam, D., McGill, B., & Premkumar, P. (2018). Improving health literacy in community populations: a review of progress. Health promotion international, 33(5), 901-911. Web.