Introduction
The globalization process, which increases the level of cultural and ethical diversity, creates an immense amount of additional pressure for the nurses. Situations, in which personal biases, whether they are explicit or implicit, affect both patients and caregivers, can produce a positive effect on nursing as well as adverse outcomes. This paper aims to discuss how the mentioned issue influences on the nursing practice settings in the selected specialty track, and also personal biases and the strategies for reducing them will be observed. Additionally, the support from the scholarly literature will be given.
Discussion of Bias
First of all, it is essential to identify the selected specialty track, which is the family nurse practitioner. It is of high importance to understand that caregiving should be provided in the context of traditions, kept by families and communities, and the broader social context because all these causes have a vast impact on patients. Since caregiving is primarily based on the communication between nurses and patients, having explicit or implicit personal biases can have an adverse effect on that process (Pitt, Powis, Levett-Jones, & Hunter, 2014). Biases are present in many forms, most notably racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and age biases (Hall et al., 2015; Edlund, 2016). For example, older patients continuously face many disparities, caused by the caregivers’ attitude towards them (Edlund, 2016).
Identification of Personal Bias
For the purposes of that paper, it is important to discuss personal biases, which can affect me as a nursing professional. It is not comfortable to admit; however, it appears to be that I am among many healthcare providers in the United States who have a racial or ethnic bias toward their patients (Hall et al., 2015). It is also important to notice that the mentioned issue have an implicit nature because I did not identify it as a problem before I started to work on this assignment. Studying the research by Hall et al. (2015) helped to understand the behavioral pattern, which I did not notice before in my character, although it did affect me as a professional.
Strategy to Reduce Bias
Further, it is essential to discuss the strategy to reduce the personal bias, which was identified before. Although it has an immense impact on patients, very little attempts were made to study the implicit racial/ethnic bias among the professional nurses. However, the research by Hall et al. (2015) has shown that it is a relatively common practice, which is activated by stressful situations, personal experiences, and intersecting identities. However, a family nurse practitioner “may benefit from a combination of both individual and systemic intervention strategies” which aim to detect and decrease the level of personal bias.
Self-Reflection
In conclusion for this brief study, several observations could be made. First of all, the issue of personal bias is widespread and it adversely affects the patients. The registered nurse, as a healthcare professional, should be aware of his prejudices to a maximum extent. Studying the material for this assignment helped me to understand the importance of decreasing the level of my personal bias, although I did not notice its existence before. Regarding future professional practice, this study will help me to implement the anti-bias policies in my professional settings. Additionally, it is of high importance to spread the awareness about personal biases among my colleagues because it would decrease the amount of racially, gender, or age biased situations in the workplaces.
References
Edlund, B. J. (2016). Unconscious bias. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 42(5), 3-4.
Hall, W. J., Chapman, M. V., Lee, K. M., Merino, Y. M., Thomas, T. W., Payne, B. K.,… & 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), 60-76.
Pitt, V., Powis, D., Levett-Jones, T., & Hunter, S. (2014). Nursing students’ personal qualities: A descriptive study. Nurse Education Today, 34(9), 1196-1200.