Providing Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Care in Infection Prevention

Session Description: A basic tent of infection prevention is to educate professionals and patients alike on principles and practices of preventing infections from occurring in the first place. These explanations can occur in all healthcare settings although there are also opportunities to discuss in community settings. Across the nation, health literacy varies depending on factors such as age, culture, educational level, preferred language, and more. We raise attention to infection preventionists on the importance of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), a series of 15 standards to ensure that effective communication leads to understanding of health information, which then reduces inequities and improves quality of care. To prevent infections, the delivery of education should be performed in a manner that uses plain language, enables teach-back, and identifies any barriers to successful outcomes. This is especially the case when doctors may utilize technical medical terms, but the terminology should be restated in ways that promote adoption of infection prevention practices such as hand hygiene, vaccination update, and attention to preventive measures if healthcare associated devices such as central lines or urinary catheters are used. We illustrate how CLAS standards should be deployed in the setting of patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). In the United States, there are over 68 million people who do not speak English as their first language. We describe how persons with LEP may have adverse outcomes if certified medical interpreters are not utilized, and technologies such as video or audio remote interpretations can be optimized. We also describe how organizations can perform outreach to community-based and faith-based organizations in order to educate about infection prevention in the communities’ preferred languages. Regardless of one’s language, to optimize the chances of success with adherence to infection prevention measures, the CLAS standards could be incorporated.