“But… what ARE you?” It was a question I encountered with discomfiting regularity. As a biracial child growing up in a working-class southern community, I was often the only non-white student in my classes. In this homogeneous town, my otherness stuck out like a sore thumb, and I learned from a young age that people can be unkind when they feel threatened by bucked conventions. Though I inhabited two cultures, I didn’t fit neatly in either. These experiences taught me the importance of inclusivity, and I developed a sensitivity for people deemed outsiders because of their differences. In college, these feelings became more acute when I learned that minority and multiracial patients often face specific medical challenges, and need culturally
While these beliefs may be strange to many African American, however they still influence the health care behavior of a good portion of their patients. For this reason, the caregiver should be familiar with them in order to deliver Culture-Sensitive Health Care to African American.
It is important to remember that no two human beings are the same, we are all individuals with their own unique set of characteristics, personalities, interests, life experiences and abilities. People who will need care often grouped together because of the needs they have in common.
One of the most apparent cultural differences is one’s biological variations. This refers to growth patterns, physical characteristics, disease prevalence, and resistance to disease. In health care there is a baseline for cultural and ethnic groups, however, it is important to view everyone as an individual. Culturally appropriate care is an ever changing process. Nurses should always be sensitive to their patients and remember that if nothing else they need to treat them with respect (Davidhizar, Giger, pg. 121).
While, distrusts results after years of oppression, adverse disparities, and renegade behavior which existed between some ethnic groups and providers. Now, decades after research are finding that minorities continue to have inadequate access to quality health care (Singh, 2010,p.1). Even after all those years, respect” may be the one element that will not undo social wrongs, however it will put ideals into perspective, the perspective is having respect for our fellow men and woman, treating others as we would want to be treated. Clinical care etiquettes and processes can regiment precaution and guaranteed identical care for racial or ethnic minority patients. Respect is
Diversity among people of the same race, faith, ethnicity or sexual orientation can exit significantly. It is essential to learn about each individual. Nurses should give evidence-based personalized care to meet the needs of such a
The title of the current event news is Hospital’ing while black: New study shows black people receive cold shoulders from doctors. In the article, author Clutch brings attention to how people of color are treated in American hospitals. A study by the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management found that doctors treat their white patients better than their black patients. Black actors were used in the study to pretend to be patients with serious medical conditions. The findings revealed that when communicating and interacting with patients, doctors showed little sympathy towards their black patients. For example, the doctors often touch, stood closer, and made eye contact with their white patients, but not with their black patients. What is more,
I decided that while this was something common and had backing maybe I should do more digging before bringing it up with anyone else. So, I decided to try a different approach, I copied all the patient files, then ran them through a program that sorted them by race. Now I didn’t think this would go anywhere as the country is now much more integrated than it was during the time period any of the articles or books I found were written in. Imagine my surprise when I find that the repeat visits from minority races all have issues such as insecurity in their job and social life, many of them seem to have a dislike for how they look or act at times and they let this control them but then they dislike themselves even more and some of them have inferiority
Practitioners should be prepared to understand and account for the special needs of minorities. As reflected throughout this volume, this means that we need to consider carefully in our practice the dimensions of race and ethnicity, including not only their significance for human functioning but also their impact on service delivery. In this regard, Pecora, P. J., W. R. Seelig, F. A. Zirps, and S. M. Davis, eds. (1996) assert: "Training
Based on common interests, I formed lifelong relationships with my classmates even though initially I was ignored due to my race. Having interacted with individuals raised in PA, allowed me to understand the culture of the area while providing further motivation to practice medicine here as well.. I also preserved my Indian heritage in a town where one percent of the population is of Asian descent. Raised in an Indian household, taught me the rich culture and history of India but I also observed the culture of rural America and combined both perspectives. I have been able to effectively communicate with any individual regardless of what part of the world they come from. I strongly feel my childhood experiences will help me immensely in practicing medicine by developing a great patient-physician rapport in any area as a doctor, who happens to be a
After the IOM conducted a few studies using clinical data abstracted from patients, it was found that minorities do not receive the same needed treatment than caucasians do. However, some researchers, patients might react differently to treatment because of their racial and ethnic backgrounds. One factor for this justification, is the fact that some patients have racial differences in attitudes and behavior causing them to reject or delay getting treatment. Many people's cultural backgrounds impact their medical decisions. In addition, research suggest that many doctors may be justify when diagnosing and treating minority patients. As a result, researchers believe that these aspects are linked together with providers attitudes. In most cases providers have to use these disparities to diagnose treatment to patients. A
These findings suggest that factors such as patient and physician attitudes, as well as race concordance, play a role
Self-awareness, verbal dialogue in supervision, personal- therapy, and journaling, are some common inventions used to help therapists learn positive coping skills to deal with positive and negative counter-transference responses and behaviors. “Marriage and family therapist have come to perceive the concept of counter-transference as a valuable tool for enhancing the therapeutic process” (Gil & Rubin, 2005, p. 87).
This bias will be formed in the “classroom” in which multicultural competency takes place. If therapists are taught certain things about certain races, they have no choice but to implement these issues into their practice. I think the implementation of any sort of knowledge is absolutely dependent on the patient and what is the nature of their illness.
We live in a society where people come from different countries, they belong to different cultural, religion, ethnic groups, and races. All these factors come together and contributes to differences that make us unique from each other. Hence, a multicultural country with huge diversity. This reflection journal will cover what “human race” is and what role it plays in ones’ personal life and in a nursing profession. Moreover, what bias, assumptions and judgements are, and how to avoid them. Lastly, what caring is and what role does it play in nursing.