Using technology to support the CLAS Standards

Effective communication is essential for ensuring effective patient education to support patient acquisition of self-care knowledge and behaviors. National standards have been developed suggesting methods for meeting this need and systems changes are either mandated or recommended within health care delivery organizations to assure movement toward the goal of effective patient-provider communication. By availing themselves of the opportunity to assign these nationally standardized cultural competency modules as part of institutional requirements, nursing administrators and managers can implement a cost-effective method for improving the cultural knowledge base of nursing personnel.