Peer Responses:
- Length: A minimum of 180 words per post, not including references
- Citations: At least two high-level scholarly reference in APA per post from within the last 5 years
The clinic I am currently doing my rotation at is called Sacramento Community Clinic in Sacramento, CA. Our office caters to individuals of all age groups, races, ethnicities, genders, and accommodates both new and returning patients, as well as those seeking episodic appointments and either have medicaid or medicare, and some even have no insurance. Half of the patients that I’ve seen have English as their second language since they are immigrants, and we provide interpreters for patients with limited to no English. The providers do not match in terms of racial diversity as they are predominantly Caucasian, whereas our patient population includes members of the minority groups including Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians. However, the ancillary staff do match the demographics and all live within the vicinity of the clinic, which is beneficial as this facilitates the establishment of rapport and the development of trust.
Nurse practitioners have a responsibility to provide priority to providing fair and unbiased treatment to patients with chronic illnesses (Ricks et al., 2021). I was able to interview my preceptor at the clinic site to discuss equitable care and biases as well as diverse populations in the clinic. Currently there are limited training available to staff that are provided and required by the company. During the interview, my preceptor was only able to recall one training she did related to removing biases which was a training about the LGBTQ community and how to handle pronouns and their care.
During the interview, my preceptor expressed a strong belief in the lack of healthcare equity experienced by African Americans. She stated that historically, black patients have not received proper medical care, resulting in higher rates of morbidities and mortalities when compared to white individuals (Roberys & Omalts, 2023). In order to address this disparity and racial injustice, she invests the necessary effort to create a strong rapport and gather comprehensive health history. This enables her to effectively educate and reassure individuals within this demographic. According to my preceptor, taking the time to go out of your way even if you are behind on time allows the patient to feel seen and heard by their provider, and in turn allows them the opportunity to participate in their care and collaborate with the provider and be self-empowered to make healthcare decisions.
Currently my clinic provides community outreaches and also provides free clinic days on a monthly basis to be able to provide healthcare services to the underserved population. Some actionable recommendations for improving my clinic would be to implement training programs and enhancing cultural awareness and literacy. Throughout the interview process, I discovered that there is a lack of comprehensive training throughout the onboarding phase. Providers are simply expected to begin seeing patients on their first day without any company-provided training on healthcare equity, cultural competence, and reducing biases. Integrating training programs into the orientation phase to enhance cultural competency, mitigate biases, and promote health equality would be advantageous (Roberts & Omaits, 2023). Additionally, providing annual refresher courses to address healthcare equity and reduce obstacles would be beneficial. The success of implementation can be assessed by determining the percentage of new hires who complete the training, as well as the completion rate of annual refresher training. Alternatively, one can provide pretests and posttests both before and after the training to assess whether there is an enhanced understanding of health equality, bias, and equitable health (Roberts & Omaits, 2023).
References
Ricks, T. N., Abbyad, C., & Polinard, E. (2021). Undoing racism and mitigating bias among healthcare professionals: Lessons learned during a systematic review. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 9(5), 1990–2000. Retrieved May 9, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-01137-x
Roberts, K. J., & Omaits, E. (2023). Evaluation of a virtual health equity training for mid-career primary healthcare providers. Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, 10. Retrieved May 9, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1177/23821205231219614
