Stereotypes and Implicit Bias Free Essay Example

Bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias are important aspects that should be recognized in the provision of healthcare as they may affect a fair distribution of healthcare resources negatively affecting the achievement of healthcare goals (Grand Canyon University, 2018).

The community health nurse can recognize bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias within the community by using certain tools such as the implicit-association test (IAT) to identify bias towards certain individuals or populations.

Bias involves being in favor of one person/group while being prejudice against another individual/group (Grand Canyon University, 2018). This means that a healthcare provider may discriminate one person/group over another in the provision of healthcare services. Implicit bias involves unconscious attitudes that influence individuals’ behavior and actions. These may be negative attitudes that may affect effective decision-making in the provision of healthcare services (Van Ryn, 2016).

On the other hand, stereotypes are individuals’ perceptions or their beliefs about certain individuals or cultural groups.

Community nurses should be culturally competent which will help them to recognize the needs of different community members that will prevent unequal provision of healthcare resources among different members of the community (Van Ryn, 2016). Another way to recognize bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias within a community is the different community members’ perceptions about certain health-related issues. Community nurses can use different strategies to address these concepts to ensure that health promotion activities are culturally competent (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). One of these strategies is collaborating with community leaders to develop effective decisions without negative impacts on any person or group.

Collaboration will also enable a community nurse to educate community leaders on these concepts and their effects on equal distribution of healthcare services (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). This will promote literacy in these areas where appropriate action will be taken to prevent the negative effects associated with these concepts.

Strategies that a community nurse can employ to reduce cultural dissonance and bias to deliver culturally competent care includes being culturally competent (Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017). This allows the nurse to understand how personal and cultural values impact his/her provision of healthcare services to individuals of other backgrounds. This will enable him/her to implement effective interventions to prevent bias, implicit bias, and stereotypes on certain community groups (Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017). Another strategy that can be employed to reduce cultural dissonance and bias to deliver culturally competent care involves training healthcare workers on self-mentoring programs to motivate them in integrating evidence-based practices to reduce cultural dissonance and bias. One evidence-based practice is collecting feedback from community leaders through community surveys and questionnaires (Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017). This process encourages active participation by community members enhancing decision-making on matters of diversity.

References:

1. Cuevas, A. G., O’Brien, K., & Saha, S. (2017). What is the key to culturally competent care: Reducing bias or cultural tailoring?. Psychology & health, 32(4), 493507. doi:10.1080/08870446.2017.1284221
2. FitzGerald, C., & Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit Bias In Healthcare Professionals: a systematic review. BMC medical ethics, 18(1), 19. Grand Canyon University. (2018).
3. Community and Public Health: The Future of Health Care. Grand Canyon University. Van Ryn, M. (2016). Avoiding Unintended Bias: Strategies for Providing More Equitable Health Care. Minnesota medicine, 99(2), 4046.

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