Patients with chronic illnesses

Patients with chronic illnesses

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Implicit and explicit biases exist within the healthcare system. Such biases have a negative impact on the delivery of equitable care. Existing social structures allow the perpetuation of such biases majorly on the basis of race, gender, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status. Most of the bias in health care delivery is experienced majorly based on racial background. Both implicit and explicit biases are more pronounced toward patient populations with chronic illnesses. Health providers have a responsibility to promote equitable care and avoid bias when caring for patients with chronic illnesses.

There are various strategies that health providers can employ to avoid any form of bias when treating patients with chronic illnesses and promote equitable care. One major strategy is becoming aware of the personal biases that the provider can have towards the patient or the chronic disease. This includes appreciating the magnitude of the provider’s bias concerning the illness and the patient’s demographic background. The providers must be able to understand the chronic illness and avoid stereotyping the disease and the patient. They, therefore, must deal with patients as individuals rather than based on the entire patient population with the illness.

Another strategy is to focus on their cultural awareness and cultural humility. Cultural awareness, cultural equity, as well as cultural humility are essential elements of delivering appropriate and equitable care (Curtis et al., 2019). Health providers can focus on improving diversity both socially and professionally within the workplace to improve cultural equity, as well as promote interracial patient-physician interaction to promote cultural awareness and the provision of equitable care. Health providers should also push for the contextualization of factors that contribute to biases within healthcare systems, such as structural racism, provider perceptions towards certain diseases, and their complicity in associating race and gender with certain illnesses (Vela et al., 2022).

References

Curtis, E., Jones, R., Tipene-Leach, D., Walker, C., Loring, B., Paine, S. J., & 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), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12939-019-1082-3/TABLES/3

Vela, M. B., Erondu, A. I., Smith, N. A., Peek, M. E., Woodruff, J. N., & Chin, M. H. (2022). Eliminating Explicit and Implicit Biases in Health Care: Evidence and Research Needs. Annual Review of Public Health, 43, 477. https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV-PUBLHEALTH-052620-103528

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Discuss how providers can promote equitable care and employ strategies to avoid bias when caring for patients with chronic illnesses.

Patients with chronic illnesses

Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references
Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA from within the last 5 years