Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) aims and providing guidelines on providing quality
healthcare for all groups of people.
NQCA addresses cultural, sexual, linguistic and racial disparities within the American population.
The data is collected directly through interviewing the illegal immigrants and indirectly through collecting data
from secondary sources such as data from the national population statistic records.
The data collected from the immigrants should be kept confidential from the access of the general public.
The standard requires that all healthcare care facilities have data concerning the composition of the population
they serve.
Therefore, nurses, as part of the healthcare personnel, should have data on the illegal immigrants, their several
ethnic, racial and linguistic compositions.
Cultural competency is a requirement for quality healthcare services.
Therefore, nurses need to understand the implication of the cultural background of illegal immigrants on the
communication and implementation of healthcare interventions.
The NQCA has developed a data collection tool for obtaining ethnic, cultural and linguistic details of the
populations (National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2014).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Thus, nurses and other health care providers should adopt and utilize the tool in obtaining such data.
In addition, the federal law provides for the regulations that give provisions on obtaining the data.
Nurses are therefore required to gain knowledge of the application of the laws and regulations pertaining to the
collection of related data. Several studies have established that individuals from minority ethnic groups and
languages are willing to give information pertaining their ethnic, linguistic and cultural background after the
provision of information regarding the use of information.
Therefore, nurses are supposed to explain the purpose of the data collection from illegal immigrants.
Specifically, nurses and healthcare professionals should, therefore, explain that the collection of data from the
illegal immigrant respondents is meant to assist in the provision of proper prenatal care to the patients (Jones,
Nyamongo, Broesskamp, de Salazar, Fawcett, Hills, & McQueen, 2017).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Some quality monitoring agencies have recommended that information about the ethnic composition of population
groups should be collected directly from the individuals.
Other agencies recommend that the information may be obtained from websites or database
While collecting the data directly from the individual, individuals must meet the inclusion criteria for the exercise of
data collection. The relevant laws and regulations should be adhered to while conducting the data collection.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals and stakeholders should collaborate in collecting data on the prenatal
healthcare needs for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Medical assistants, health informatics, community health workers and customer care personnel should be trained
on the need for collecting information about the ethnicity and linguistic background of illegal immigrants
( Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 2013).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Some quality monitoring agencies have recommended that information about the ethnic composition of
population groups should be collected directly from the individuals.
Other agencies recommend that the information may be obtained from websites or database
While collecting the data directly from the individual, individuals must meet the inclusion criteria for the
exercise of data collection. The relevant laws and regulations should be adhered to while conducting the
data collection.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals and stakeholders should collaborate in collecting data on the
prenatal healthcare needs for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Medical assistants, health informatics, community health workers and customer care personnel should be
trained on the need for collecting information about the ethnicity and linguistic background of illegal
immigrants ( Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 2013).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Healthcare professionals are required to gain background
data of illegal immigrants in order to participate in providing
prenatal healthcare and monitor their health status and
condition.
Additionally, the personnel involved in the collection should
adopt the use of the commonly used data collection
software tool s developed by various healthcare quality
agencies.
The data collected from the illegal immigrants should
reflect on the geographic origin background
The geographical information gives an indication of the
determinants of health that may affect the prenatal health of
the immigrants.
For instance, some geographical areas are known for the
prevalence of conditions such as malaria which is fatal
for the health of the pregnant mother and the fetus
(Ku & Jewers, 2013).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Information gained through a collection of data on the ethnic
and linguistic combination of illegal immigrants helps in the
development of prenatal health care indicators for the illegal
immigrants.
For instance, information about the culture of the population
helps in developing healthcare and educational programmes
that address the cultural characteristics and its implications
affecting the provision of healthcare services.
The linguistic characteristics help the nurses in formulating
prenatal health care services and that are sensitive to the
language spoken by illegal immigrants.
NCQA standards require access to multiple languages
by patients at the time they receive health care services.
The program should collect the linguistic characteristics of
illegal immigrants who seek prenatal healthcare services at
respective healthcare facilities
(Dreachslin, Gilbert, & Malone, 2013).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
The objective of issuing the guideline is based on the evidence
that the patient’s satisfaction has been reported in patients
who receive interpreter services when receiving healthcare
services.
Nurses and other healthcare service providers should aim at
using interpreters for illegal immigrants who are not proficient in
English.
Access to healthcare services is increased through reduction
of the disparity between the persons who are proficient in English
and those who have a limitation in their proficiency in English.
The program aims at increasing the amount of time the patients
spends with the nurses. Further, the nurses’ educational program
aims at increasing the patients’ level of comprehension of the
treatment plans and the utilization of healthcare services.
The program aims at increasing compliance of the patient to
the treatment intervention initiated.
The nurses’ educational program aims at reducing the costs of
healthcare services through the reduction of the possibility of
hospital admissions (Betancourt et al., 2015).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
The National Committee for Quality Assurance standards require healthcare providers to provide
interpretation services based on the competency of their proficiency and knowledge of the language of illegal
immigrants who seek prenatal healthcare services
A patient who accesses the interpreter services while receiving healthcare services is associated with an
increase in the application of preventive measures against healthcare services.
The illegal immigrants who need prenatal services should be offered linguistic interpretation services.
Patients who receive prenatal services increase the probability of increasing the number of clinical
services and adherence to the treatment plan initiated.
The program aims at developing the standards for the evaluation of the quality of the services offered
for translation of the patients’ languages at the time of offering the services (Dreachslin et al., 2013).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Healthcare interpreters should provide interpretation services based on the complexity of the clinical symptoms
presented.
The complexity of the clinical presentation determines the professional to apply the linguistic interpretation
services.
The proficiency of the interpreter is assessed in reference to the language competence in clinical area setting.
The educational program on the linguistic competency is evaluated based on the accuracy of correctly
interpreting the meaning of various words.
Further, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued guidelines that require that patients
who have limited proficiency in English to receive services at the point of receiving healthcare.
Nurses aim at achieving patient satisfaction when providing care
(National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2014).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Illegal immigrants seeking prenatal healthcare services have expectations of the quality of the care that is
offered to them in terms of the alignment of the care with their linguistic and cultural characteristics.
The educational program aims at working towards meeting the patients’ cultural expectations while
receiving antenatal health care.
Further, data collected from the illegal immigrants on the linguistic characteristics of the illegal immigrants
should be used to develop updates to develop the nurses’ competency.
The competency for the linguistic characteristics targets the stakeholders in health care delivery systems at all
the levels including the management and patient-nurse level.
Community involvement is one of the elements of increasing the incorporation of the cultural characteristics of
the illegal immigrants’ culture into the provisions of prenatal health care services
(National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2014).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
The NCQA should aim at increasing the cultural networks within the
healthcare delivery system.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals training programs should
increase the enrolment of the members of the illegal immigrants.
Enrolling members of the minority groups in nursing training programs
ensure diversity in the healthcare system.
In addition, thus incases the level of understanding of cultural diversity as
characterized by the presence of the minority groups in the general
population.
Particularly, leaders and significant members of the illegal immigrant
community should be involved in managing prenatal healthcare services.
The collaboration between the health care systems and the community
increase the understanding of the cultural diversity of the illegal
immigrants’ population (National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2014).
Illegal Immigrants And Prenatal Care
Needs for care vary from, one population group to another.
Healthcare needs for prenatal care among illegal immigrants
are determined by the culture, the race and the environment
within which the illegal immigrants live.
Finally, healthcare professionals, including nurses need
a plan to disseminate information to illegal immigrants in the
USA concerning the prenatal healthcare.
The dissemination of information needs to be conducted
through the mass media, such as television and
newspapers.
Further, nurses may use community health care workers
who are proficient in the language of the illegal immigrants.
Such measures ensure that members of the minority
community are of the various prenatal health care services
available in the various healthcare facilities across the USA.
Involvement of the illegal immigrants in these programs
improves their health-seeking behavior(Ku & Jewers,
2013).
References
1.Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Park, E. R. (2015). Cultural competence and health care
disparities: key perspectives and trends. Health affairs, 24(2), 499-505.
2.Dreachslin, J. L., Gilbert, M. J., & Malone, B. (2013). Diversity and cultural competence in health care: A
systems approach. John Wiley & Sons.
3.Jones, C. M., Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, M., Broesskamp-Stone, U., de Salazar, L., Fawcett, S., Hills, M., … &
McQueen, D. V. (2017). The Global Programme on Health Promotion Effectiveness (GPHPE). In Global
Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness (pp. 13-31). Springer, New York, NY.
4.Ku, L., & Jewers, M. (2013). Health care for immigrant families. Washington, DC: National Center on Immigrant
Integration Policy.
5.National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2011, September 14). Implementing Multicultural Health Care
Standards: Ideas and Examples.
Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (2013).Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call
to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70(4), 477-486.