Introduction
The brochure title selected for review is “Speak Up Against Discrimination.” It was published in 2021 to help ensure all people receive care free of discrimination (The Joint Commission, 2021). The guide addresses patients and healthcare providers. It helps healthcare organizations overcome entrenched behaviors, like institutional, systemic racism and bias, that can lead to unintended patient harm. This brochure encourages patients to speak up if they believe they were treated disrespectfully.
Summary of Brochure
The guide highlights the barriers that can result in differences in the quality of care. For instance, it states age, educational level, gender identity or expression, race or ethnicity, language, and others as the everyday basis for discrimination (The Joint Commission, 2021). It indicates the patients’ rights that, if violated, may prompt them to seek an audience with their advocates or the healthcare organization.
Such rights include timely and appropriate care, treatment with courtesy and respect, and assistance of an interpreter (The Joint Commission, 2021). Additionally, the brochure links valuable resources that can help victims file complaints, find information, or report to accredited institutions if the issue was not appropriately addressed. The topic interests me because discrimination is a sensitive issue in healthcare that often arises due to a misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
Evaluation
The information is helpful because it helps patients exercise their rights, and healthcare organizations understand that values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to the health systems. I will include the brochure in my patient education to assure them the institution stands firmly against any racism, injustices, or any behavior that runs contrary to patient care. The infographic was neatly done, from the themes to the information, which made it simple and easy to follow. Additional three points in the patient’s rights section would have expanded the context to offer more insight into what could be considered or reported as discrimination. The information was presented in a clear and precise language that anyone can understand with additional resources to seek information and explore other forms of justice.
Bias in healthcare can range from subject to explicit, often depending on the patient’s interpretation of the situation. According to Conner et al. (2022)., healthcare providers can often misunderstand what upsets patients about their care. Patients often cite care-team coldness and incompetence in their reports while filing complaints (Conner et al., 2022). However, research agrees patients experience discrimination in the healthcare system due to race, age, educational level, and more, making it necessary to create awareness to prevent such issues (Yearby et al., 2022; Nong et al., 2020).
Primarily, consumers of healthcare services in the hospital setting will benefit from this brochure. Nevertheless, healthcare professionals can use this brochure to embrace patients’ rights to dignity and a reminder to embrace diversity and equality in their daily practice. The guide can improve patient safety by ensuring medical professionals have ethics because patients know their rights and can use the information to seek justice.
Conclusion
This paper evaluates the application of the brochure, which states that patients have the right to speak against discrimination. Information in the guide highlights critical aspects of racism in healthcare settings, such as age, education level, race, and other forms of bias. Therefore, it informs patients in a brief, simple, and concise language of their rights to quality care and available resources to help them seek justice. Patients can utilize these guidelines to identify when their rights are violated, besides the brochure serving as a deterrence of bias by medical professionals.
References
Conner, A., Podtschaske, B., Mazza, M. C., Zionts, D., Malcolm, E., Thomson, C., Singer, S., & Milstein, A. (2022). Care teams misunderstand what most upsets patients about their care. Healthcare, 10(4). Web.
Nong, P., Raj, M., Creary, M., Kardia, S., & Platt, J. (2020). Patient-reported experiences of discrimination in the US health care system. JAMA Network Open, 3(12), 1–11. Web.
The Joint Commission. (2021). Speak up against discrimination. Web.
Yearby, R., Clark, B., & Figueroa, J. F. (2022). Structural racism in historical and modern US health care policy. Health Affairs, 41(2), 187–194. Web.