Pediatrician Discrimination And Discrimination

In the last twenty years, the rising number of disparities in health and healthcare has increased simultaneously with the influx of minorities within the population (Baldwin, 2003) A4. As the size of an ethnically diverse population steadily continues to increase, so will the level of complexities of patients’ health needs, which nurses and other healthcare staff will be expected to address (Black, 2008) A1. The issue of racial, ethnic and health disparities for minorities exists for several complex reasons, however, even with this being widely known, very little action has been taken to try and correct it (Baldwin, 2003) A4. Research findings suggest that without actively implementing cultural diversity within the healthcare workforce, quality in healthcare will decline while health disparities continue to rise (Lowe & Archibald, 2009) A3. So although the shortage of nursing staff should be a high-priority for change in the U.S., the need for more registered nurses with racially

Implicit bias is not quite obvious to the individual who perpetuates this notion because it is a product of their subconscious. Without any type of recognition of implicit bias, issues can arise when interacting with people who are facing the consequences of this action. Physicians may have developed biases towards the Asian American community throughout their childhood and adolescent years; these beliefs can stick with the individual for a life-time without expression of biases in an explicit

According to the video, there are many implications that healthcare professionals face when treating diverse groups in America. It does not matter what healthcare profession you are in there is always going to be diversity with patients and not to forget the professional. In the video, “Unnatural Cases…Is inequality making us sick?” Dr. David and Dr. Collins who are both neonatologist, want to find out why there are more infant mortality, premature babies born to African American women than there are in White American women. Their first assumption was due to economic differences. In the case of Kim Anderson, it proved otherwise. Kim Anderson was a well-educated woman, who was living the American dream. She was well educated, took very good

also by other people in the room, despite the White participant being unaware of their own bias.4 This suggests that implicit racial/ethnic biases may not only impact a clinician’s behavior towards a Black patient, but also on how the patient perceives the interaction. The inconsistency between an implicitly biased White-person’s nonverbal cues and verbal friendliness may lead to subconscious suspicions of deceitfulness among Black patients.27 Consistent with this finding, Black patients were least satisfied with their medical encounters when their providers rated high on implicit and low on explicit bias, even compared to clinicians who were high on both implicit and explicit bias. The high-low providers were rated as less warm, friendly,

In the United States society is well aware that hispanics have been treated with a negative attitude in the health care providing services. Just like anybody else no matter what race they are, they should have the same treatment. This situation needs to be more acknowledged and better controlled. White patients have received better quality of care than any other race including black americans, hispanics, american indians, and asian patients. One might argue that the health care providers are free to express their opinion however they like, but just like any job these health care providers have to treat everyone the same and make them feel comfortable. “ Negative implicit attitudes about people of color may contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.” In many cases health care providers have implicit bias in terms of positive attitudes towards whites and negative attitudes towards any other color. “Fifteen relevant studies were identified through searches of bibliographic databases and reference lists of studies that met inclusion criteria.”

As a nurse aide working in a hospital, there are multiple instances where privilege and differences in power affect the way I, and those around me, engage with patients. For the privilege memo, I wish to discuss how my own personal benefits of being a white person affect the patients I work with as well as other minorities. For the community profile, I plan to take a deeper look into the black community, if possible specifically Somalian Americans. There are numerous new Somalian Americans in the Fargo community that I have encountered before both in and out of the health care systems. Delving into their experiences with health care in the America will aide my attempt to educate myself about minorities in health care environments both nationally and

Providers possess a multiplicity of roles in today’s society. It is typical that patients trust their physicians and should feel comfortable seeing them; however, not all communities can feel this way about their providers. Iatrophobia is prominent within the African-American community, and a history of medical abuses against this community may have a link to such present-day health inequalities as shorter life spans and higher infant mortality rates than Whites.

A notable discrepancy exists between health care received by the black population in comparison to the white population. However, the foundation of health care inconsistencies has yet to be firmly established. Instead, conflicting views prioritize causes of health care disparities as due to social determinants or due to individual responsibility for health (Woolf & Braveman, 2011). Emerging literature also indicates that health care providers propagate disparities by employing implicit biases (Chapman, Kaatz, & Carnes, 2013; Dovidio, Fiske, 2012). This paper aims to discuss black health care disparities as a function of socially constructed beliefs that both consciously and unconsciously influence health care professionals practice.

With such glaring evidence on structural racism within the medical field, it is not surprising that people of color face disparities.

Healthcare diversities among healthcare professionals have been a challenge within the healthcare system. There are various publications that state that the underrepresented minorities have a higher chance of not graduating medical school, accruing high student loans, and ultimately were unsatisfied with their jobs (Pololi et al., 2013). This is not only disturbing, but this represents the individuals who are or will be servicing the public on a daily basis. As the population increases, racial differences increase, so to combat these disparities cultural competencies have to come into play within the health-professions workforce. For instance, although African Americans constitute to 13% of the population, in the physician workforce they only account for 4%, also women who are part of the workforce outweigh the amount of men by at least 4%, respectively (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Coincidentally, whites make up to 49% (both men and women) of the total U.S. MD active physicians based on the labor workforce statistics of 2013.

When physicians are under time pressure they rely on stereotypes and biases in order to be more efficient. This study assessed time pressure and implicit bias in 81 primary care physicians and general internists. Physicians were primed with a sequence of words, either related to race or neutral words for the control group. Then, the physicians were asked to read a vignette about a patient with chest pain and give their diagnosis. Some physicians were given three minutes to respond, and others had only half that time. Results showed that physicians who had less time to diagnose gave a less serious diagnosis to Black and Hispanic patients and were less likely to refer a Black patient to a specialist. The conclusion is that when physicians are under stress they may be more influenced by implicit biases to inform their

Personal and institutional relationships may be affected by concerns of continued discrimination against African Americans who have historically been victims of both interpersonal and institutional racial discrimination (LaVeist & Nuru-Jeter, 2002). Research demonstrated that concordance in patient and physician race is positively related to African Americans perceptions of quality of care. Patient satisfaction supports the notion that fear of race-based discrimination in interpersonal relationships with health care providers may also affect trust (Cooper, Gallo, Gonzales, Vu, Powe, Nelson & Ford, 1999; LaVeist, 2002). African Americans had been shown to have greater awareness of the documented history of racial discrimination in the health care system than white Americans.

The answer is no simple or a single solution. Rather, the answers must address the range of causes of disparities (inequalities in education, housing, and health insurance) and empower multiple levels of change ( patients, providers, health systems, policymakers, communities). These levels of change are most commonly found in the fundamental public health Socio-Ecological model. In this model, there are 5 levels, intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, institutions and policy, that could be focused on when implementing solutions to public health concerns, which health disparities would be considered. One method that should be looked at very closely in the institutional level of the model is reorganizing the curriculum of physician education in order to incorporate cultural competency. Such training can improve provider knowledge, attitudes and skills, which may be an important precursor to addressing unconscious provider bias. Drawing upon evidence in social cognitive psychology, Van Rhys Burgess have outlined strategies and skills for healthcare providers to prevent unconscious racial biases from influencing the clinical encounter. Their framework includes: 1) Enhancing internal motivation and avoiding external pressure to reduce bias, 2) Enhancing understanding of the psychosocial basis of bias, 3) Enhancing providers’ confidence in their

Although this is a major contributing factor to healthcare disparities, it may also be the most easily correctable! In many cases, something as simple as educating the providers about the healthcare needs of their underserved patients and eliminating misguided and unfounded stereotypes and preconceptions can dramatically reduce the disparities arising from this factor. In this respect, I feel fortunate in the sense that I have had the opportunity to attend a medical school that realizes the importance of this issue and has taken every possible opportunity to educate and train myself and my fellow colleagues about the implications of these disparities in healthcare. As such, I feel confident that, thanks to my knowledge and awareness of the problem, I can prevent this factor from causing disparities in care within my own practice.

In doing so, he pays particularly close attention to black patients and their relations with health care policies and practices. Smedly maintains that blacks are not only the victims of, inpatient and outpatient treatment, racial policies, and other services but also the victims of its consequences. He argues that many health care administrators are agents to a system of inequality that support provider and administrator biases, geographical inequalities, and racial stereotypes (Smedly 2012).