Multicultural Disparities In Healthcare

The increasing population of immigrants in the United States has contributed to health disparities in the health care system. Cultural competence can remove health disparities by eliminating personal biases, and treating every person with respect. Simply recognizing and accepting different cultures is not enough, one must be able to consistently recognize and understand the differences in order to be culturally competent. Knowledge and culturally competent practices are a must for nurses to deliver quality care in our rapidly changing multicultural world (Edelman, 2014 p. 25).

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (Kassandra, A., 2015), the issue of health disparities have impacted many people’s lives in the community where the minority groups do not have equal access to the quality health care. These

Barriers in health care can lead to disparities in meeting health needs and receiving appropriate care, including preventive services and the prevention of unnecessary hospitalizations (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). In their 2008 annual report, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists several disparities’ in health care. They report that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States

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

Since the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s “Unequal Treatment Report” in 2002, highlighting the startling but harsh truths behind these health care differences, there has been a renewed interest in understanding the sources of these inconsistencies, with any seeking to identify contributing factors in hopes of creating an effective solution in reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care

This essay reviews key concepts of culture and diversity in the context of their role in causing and/or making worse disparities in health programs.

More Diverse Healthcare Professionals lead to positive patient outcomes. Racial and ethnic minorities have higher rates of poor health outcomes than white in the case of disease, even when income, employment status and insurance coverage are controlled. Cultural bias is one contributor to this, according to the IOM Report Unequal Treatment:

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.

Cultural competence in health care describes the ability to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors, including tailoring health care delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural and linguistic needs. The need for healthcare systems to increase cultural competence and personalize care for ethnic patient minorities should not be ignored. Healthcare systems should promote better understanding and communication between diverse ethnic patients and caregivers. Hospitals should design a system that caters to the needs of all the populations they serve and not just apply a one-size-fits-all approach. Becoming a culturally competent health care organization is a critical component in reducing health care disparities.

Health disparities are present in our health care system. Whether it be racial, educational, or environmental, these disparities exist and are detrimental to health care outcomes. While there have been recent advancements in how to eliminate or reduce these disparities, there is still a major inequity in health care for all individuals.

There are others areas of healthcare disparities to look into, such as immigrants and sexual orientation but for the purpose of this paper the following types will be the main areas discussed. The types of disparities of concern in this paper will include racial or ethnicity, gender, disabilities, socioeconomic, and geographic (Promotion, 2014). When looking into the racial or ethnic disparities, the population identifies themselves as racial or ethnic minority groups. Some examples of this population could

In the United States today cultural diversity is growing more prevalent every day. The report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM: Unequal treatment, 2002) presented information that racial and ethnic minorities of all ages receive lower quality health care compared to their non-minority counterparts. Every effort should be made to stop the disparities surrounding cultural differences while attempting to understand the cultural health behaviors, increase cultural

The human resources department is an essential aspect to any healthcare organization. In order to reduce these disparities HR departments and their organizations recruit, train and educate a more diverse workforce (Fried, & Fottler, 2011, pg. 301). These diverse workforce employees will continue to be the new norm as the population increases. One of the main objectives of the human resource department is to make their employees culturally aware and provide them with the cultural intelligence that it takes to furnish their patients with the best quality

One of the points raised in IOM’s article to prove that racism is a prevalent cause of health care disparity is the way the health care system is set-up, meaning at times, some hospitals and clinics can adopt a policy to contain health care cost, but may pose hindrances to minority patients’ capability to access the care.

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