Be sure that you respond to a peer in a substantive way. 

e.g. the essence, meaning, etc, of a written orspoken thought; solid or meaningful quality

    Also, just adding more words/length isn’t substance.  Also, just copying text from the book even if it is cited isn’t substance. So, substance may mean backing up your thought with a citation, but a citation alone won’t do it. The citation needs to expand upon a thought, open a new question or line of thought,  or add something to your discussion that relates and is meaningful and or makes people think about something in new ways.    

2 paragraph. Answer question to peer. 7th edition APA style

C As a Latino nurse who started his journey in an undeserved community which consisted of primarily Latinos and African Americans, this chapter really struck a nerve.  A quick background on Gloria, who is the author of this chapter, she graduated from Arizona State University in 2009, and President Barack Obama was the commencement speaker at the time.  Shortly after her ceremony President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, in which major outreach, information, funding, and support would be needed for communities who never had health care coverage previously to carry out this act (Perez, 2020).

There are many factors contributing to Latinos? health disparities, Perez (2020) does mention a few crucial ones including access to health care coverage and preventative care; language barriers; the lack of bilingual/bicultural health care providers; and health literacy.  As a Latino nurse I have witnessed time and time again this continues to be a major setback for the hispanic communities.  All the health disparities continue to be a major setback despite the number of resources we currently have in our hospitals.  This week I read an article discussing that the U.S. health care system is largely geared toward serving English speakers primarily, and language barriers continue to affect the Hispanic population.   During his research Timmins (2002) found that six of the seven studies evaluating quality of care found a significant adverse effect of language in Spanish speakers.  Personally, I have seen providers still not utilizing our interpreting services for admissions, procedures, discharges, and other important instructions despite the services being available.  I try to intervene in situations when I am present, but what about all the other instances where patients with language barriers are unable to advocate for themselves?

Gloria and The Phoenix Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) saw the ACA as an opportunity to educate, insure, and promote health and wellness amongst Latinos.  They designed an education module developed specifically for bilingual, bicultural nurses and received support from state and national offices of AARP to pilot the program in Arizona (Perez, 2020).  After one year passed, the NAHN became one of 13 grantees- and the only professional nursing organization- to receive funding by the HHS office of Minority Health (Perez, 2020).  The project was then named ?Hispanic Nurses Educating Multicultural Communities on the ACA?, which promoted insurance coverage, access to health care, and health insurance literacy. 

Overall, I was emotional and ecstatic reading through this chapter, as I have first handedly witnessed the disparities in the Hispanic population.  I am a fan of Gloria Perez?s and the NAHN?s work throughout the years and the exposure they gave to a suffering community. 

Question to my peers: Have any of you worked closely with the Hispanic communities, or have you seen language still being a significant barrier despite services available?  How do you think this will affect their overall health outcome?

References

Perez, A., G. (2020). The National Association of Hispanic Nurses Educating Multicultural Communities on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In Mason, D. J., Perez, A., Dickson, E. L., & McLemore, M. R (Ed.), Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care (8th ed., pp. 164?167). Saunders.

Timmins, C. L. (2002). The impact of language barriers on the health care of Latinos in the United States: a review of the literature and guidelines for practice. Journal of midwifery & women’s health, 47(2), 80-96.