Implicit Bias And Its Impact On Patient Care
The existence of bias in healthcare is some prejudices and stereotypes that lead to issues of serious concern in the system. Implicit bias gives rise to some associations beyond conscious awareness, which results in the wrong evaluation of an individual on the basis of some irrelevant attributes (FitzGerald and Hurst 2017). The occurrence of biased and discriminatory attitudes at healthcare institutions is not a very new affair. However, it leads to delivery of poor care to patients from the end of the healthcare workers along with improper diagnosis and delay in proper treatment. Moreover, bias and discrimination at healthcare institutions may lead to stress and depression among nurses and house staff of a healthcare organization which further impacts the health conditions of the existing patients (Hall et al. 2015). This essay is a critical reflection of biased treatments in the healthcare system and how it affects care delivery to patients. There will also be a reflection on how safe practices can avoid any kind of bias in the treatment of individuals.

I am a healthcare staff working as a nurse in one of the renowned hospitals of England. In this section, I am going to reflect on my cultural location with the help of the intersectionality framework. It is found that often despite sharing some common values and visions, we get secluded at workplaces from the people who cannot accept our lingo. An intersectionality framework is a theoretical approach that explains the interconnected nature of various categories of the society, such as gender, race, nationality, physical disabilities and ethnicity, which are regarded as the creation of interdependent as well as overlapping systems of
Demerits or discrimination (Heard et al. 2020). This theory gives assertion onto how people are often demeaned by multiple sources of oppression such as their gender identity, sexual orientation, class, religion or any other markers of identity. These markers actually don’t exist and lead to the creation of complex oppression. At my workplace, I have faced a lot of biased treatment due to my ethnicity and race. First of all, I am a female employee belonging to Aboriginal culture. As a woman, I am discriminated against for having some weaker aspects in life which make me different from men. However, research has shown that women outnumber men in medical studies, but still, there exist disparities in the high ranks of the medical career of a woman (Marcelin et al. 2019). I am considered a “Black” woman at my workplace by race. I have faced discrimination not only on the grounds of ethnicity but also race and sexual identity. My hometown is in Queensland. My native population is one of the oldest populations of human beings living outside Africa. The Aboriginals are culturally developed. However, due to different kinds of deprivations and discriminations, they are often found to not receive proper education and knowledge. This hinders the further development of the community.  Impact Of Bias In Healthcare: A Reflection Example Paper

One of my beliefs is spirituality. The Aboriginals hold a belief that spirituality is animistic. This might affect my practice by making my patients feel better. Some of the research has shown that there is a subtle connection between the beliefs we possess and the sense of well-being that we hold. It is considered that prayers and religious practices may contribute to the well-being of a person (Ashworth 2018). It might not cure the illness completely, but it may promote mental healing to some extent. According to my cultural location, being an Aboriginal, I have developed spiritual values such as self-control, courage, kinship and friendliness, courage, empathy. I have developed a sense of holistic unity and interdependence along with responsibility for other people. While applying these sets of spiritual values, my practices of healthcare are affected to some extent. First of all, I am immensely careful about the interventions and care practices I am delivering as a part of the treatment to the patient so that all his or her needs are met without much complication. Moreover, I try to establish a friendly relationship with my patients by communicating and interacting with them. This enables the growth of trust and reliability of the patient on me. The patient gets assured that he or she is being taken care of with responsibility and safety (Kutay 2021). It is the value of courage that I have derived from Aboriginals, which makes me deal with serious patients without fear but with empathy and compassion. However, their patients belonging to elite classes of the society are very rigid and discriminative about the cultural location of the healthcare staff who is catering or treating them. Aboriginals are looked down upon by many patients, and they often refuse to receive treatment from people like us. Under such cases, I do not have a choice but to give in to the demand and preferences of the patients, who are customers of the hospital. This makes me feel insulted and humiliated as well as angry. However, as a nurse, my role is to render optimum care to patients without any bias. So, I do not give up on treating patients well, no matter what extent of biased treatment I face.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

The Impact Of Bias And Discrimination On Healthcare Workers
To avoid biased treatment, I will incorporate the elimination of indigenous as well as ethnic inequalities of health. This involves racism that is institutionalized, thereby ensuring a system of health care and delivery that renders appropriate care that is also well-balanced. Nowadays, cultural competency has gained a lot of recognition along with cultural safety. This is happening at both the organizational level as well as the healthcare practitioner level, thereby achieving equitable health care (Curtis et al. 2019).
To avoid biased treatment of individuals, there are several practices that can be adopted by nurses and other healthcare workers. The focus should be on viewing each and every patient as an individual rather than segregating them to belong from a particular class, race or religion. This will help them in avoiding the inculcation of stereotyping. The nurses must attain a basic knowledge of cultures that patients possibly can belong to (Gopal et al. 2021). Nurses and other healthcare workers should begin respecting as well as understanding the extent and magnitude of biases that occur unconsciously. As healthcare workers, we should change our perspectives of certain stereotypes and adjust in a manner that will increase our exposure to diverse cultures across the world. I will recommend my colleagues and coworkers embrace the concept of the culturally safe and respectful practise of nursing. With patients, I suggest fostering open interaction in a respectful as well as culturally safe manner. There should be a prevalence of honesty and professionalism. As nurses, we should also respect the preference of the patients regarding their confidentiality and privacy.

I will advocate by suggesting ways of reducing implicit bias in health care segments which is also known as unconscious bias. These arise from implicit attitudes and stereotypes. Through designing awareness campaigns conducting seminars and group discussions, I will try to advocate the non-acceptance of implicit bias in the treatment provided in healthcare sectors. Implicit bias has to be reduced at the decision-making level of the organization. At the basic level, hiring and promotion of staff, faculty and clinicians must be done by maintaining honesty and solely on the grounds of knowledge and capability (Capers IV 2020). I will advocate the prevention of discrimination against women on the grounds of being the weaker section in comparison to men. I will prevent bias on the grounds of language, body shape and ethnicity of employees being hired. Implicit bias in the delivery of patient care must also be abolished, and I will advocate the same as well so that proper health equity can be achieved. I will enforce upon this as implicit bias in the treatment of employees as it will impact the outcome of the patient care delivery to a large extent. Employment status is a factor that impacts biased treatment apart from the aspects of the intersectionality framework (Bastos, Harnois and Paradies 2018). Apart from promoting awareness through campaigns and seminars, counter-stereotype imaging can also be carried out, which will imagine the individual who is the subject of the stereotype to be the one opposite to that particular stereotype.

It can be concluded from the above reflection that the prevalence of biased treatment in the system of healthcare is quite profound, and it needs to be abolished at the earliest so that there is no compromise on the delivery of patient care at any cost. For this, various approaches have to be adopted. It is through the adoption of various strategies that we can contribute to a better framework of healthcare with equality prevailing. Under such a circumstance, patients will no longer have to remain deprived of getting the best quality treatment in popular hospitals and under the best healthcare system. This contribution can be achieved successfully through proper development and training of healthcare workers, stakeholders and policymakers. There shall be a practice that supports and encourages the Aboriginals of Australia as a part of the society so that the health gap can be met properly.

Reference List

Ashworth, A., 2018. Understanding the factors influencing the Aboriginal health care experience. Canadian Journal of Dental Hygiene, 52(3), pp.208-212.

Bastos, J.L., Harnois, C.E. and Paradies, Y.C., 2018. Health care barriers, racism, and intersectionality in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 199, pp.209-218.

Capers IV, Q., 2020. How clinicians and educators can mitigate implicit bias in patient care and candidate selection in medical education. ATS scholar, 1(3), pp.211-217.

Curtis, E., Jones, R., Tipene-Leach, D., Walker, C., Loring, B., Paine, S.J. and Reid, P., 2019. Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: a literature review and recommended definition. International journal for equity in health, 18(1), pp.1-17.

FitzGerald, C. and Hurst, S., 2017. Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review. BMC medical ethics, 18(1), pp.1-18.

Gopal, D.P., Chetty, U., O’Donnell, P., Gajria, C. and Blackadder-Weinstein, J., 2021. Implicit bias in healthcare: clinical practice, research and decision making. Future Healthcare Journal, 8(1), p.40.

Hall, W.J., Chapman, M.V., Lee, K.M., Merino, Y.M., Thomas, T.W., Payne, B.K., Eng, E., Day, S.H. and Coyne-Beasley, T., 2015. Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: a systematic review. American journal of public health, 105(12), pp.e60-e76.

Heard, E., Fitzgerald, L., Wigginton, B. and Mutch, A., 2020. Applying intersectionality theory in health promotion research and practice. Health Promotion International, 35(4), pp.866-876.

Kutay, C., 2021. Knowledge Elicitation with Aboriginal Australian communities. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 25.

Marcelin, J.R., Siraj, D.S., Victor, R., Kotadia, S. and Maldonado, Y.A., 2019. The impact of unconscious bias in healthcare: how to recognize and mitigate it. The Journal of infectious diseases, 220(Supplement_2), pp.S62-S73.  Impact Of Bias In Healthcare: A Reflection Example Paper