Personal beliefs and their influence

Personal Beliefs on Disparities in Nursing Care

Disparities in nursing care result from a lack of care within the nursing profession. Caring is central to the nursing profession, and when it is lacking, there are negative consequences that result in increased patient dissatisfaction, mortality rates, and reduced access to services by patients (Lake et al., 2018). When caring stops being central to the nursing profession, nursing stops being nursing. There are caring disparities based on the location of a hospital and the staff assigned to the hospital. These disparities stem from the inequality of our society where certain areas receive adequate funding and support from the government, and others are left alone. Nurses working in underfunded areas struggle to care for their patients and cannot offer them appropriate services. Discrimination occurs in nursing where certain patients are offered the best services, and others are denied. Due to discrimination, there are disparities in the care a patient receives and what others receive in the same care facility (Groves et al., 2021). Culture plays another significant role in nursing. Without being culturally informed, a nurse cannot offer services to different individuals. Culture will limit the services, and there might be some disparities in the care provided due to the disconnect between cultures.

Nursing care disparities produce avoidable suffering, discarded human resources, and lost productivity (Lake et al., 2018). They also deny the equal opportunity for health care. While some of the disparities might not be intentional on the nurse’s part, some are directly caused by nursing care. When nurses treat people differently, they are negatively impacting the health of the individuals, and it is due to their selfishness. Some nurses believe black people have a high tolerance to pain and will let them stay in plain for more extended periods than white folks (Estrada et al., 2021).

Location of Health Care Facility

The location of a health care facility determines the services and level of care offered to the patients. In underfunded areas, healthcare facilities struggle to offer appropriate care to their patients because there might be fewer nursing staff, not enough resources, and high patient numbers (Groves et al., 2021). Nurse are human beings, and when they are overwhelmed with their work, they will be reporting to work tired, which impacts their service delivery. Nursing care will deteriorate, and the patients will not receive the attention they need or would have received if they attended or visited a facility with adequate staffing numbers. The underfunded facilities will not have all the resources necessary to care for the patients, and nurses are forced to work with what is available.

In some cases, there will be no medications to offer the patients resulting in patients not receiving the care they need. Patient waiting times will be longer since fewer nurses and doctors can attend to the patients. Additionally, there are higher patient numbers in some areas due to a lack of healthcare facilities.

Compared to other well-funded or middle-class locations, these locations struggle to offer care resulting in nursing disparities. Nurses seem not to care, but the reality is that they care only that they have to work with what is available, work longer hours leading to burnout, and do not have the necessary resources to offer care to their patients. Sadly, these underfunded facilities are located in less affluent areas where the low-class citizens live. Nurses are unwilling to work in low-class regions due to the nature of the locations. Without adequate nurses in a facility, the few available have to work more hours, leading to burnout and reduced service delivery. The care offered is substandard due to overworking and attending to many patients. The disparity occurs since patients do not receive the attention they need, and there might be increased incidences of nursing errors due to burnout and lack of concentration.

Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination is rampant in nursing, where patients of color will receive substandard care if they visit a predominantly White healthcare facility. According to Estrada et al. (2021) there is a tendency for colored patients not to receive adequate care, and they are mostly dismissed when they seek care services. Discrimination occurs in their care, like how many times a nurse checks upon them when hospitalized, services offered to the patient, and communication. Nurses tend to focus more on the White patients who they believe are superior, neglecting the colored patients. In outpatient facilities, colored patients are dismissed when they claim to be in pain, and in most cases, they will not receive painkillers. Some nurses reason that the patients are faking it and want to sell or use the drugs for other purposes. However, the same does not occur with White patients.

Prescription medications that can make illegal drugs or are addictive are readily prescribed to White patients. However, colored patients are suspected to be addicts or have intentions to sell the drugs (Estrada et al., 2021). Nurses will avoid prescribing these medications to colored patients leading to increased suffering and inadequate care. Mental health services are readily available for White patients, and the same is never replicated for colored patients. There is a belief that those services are best offered to White patients, and other patients are considered criminals when they seek mental health services.

Nursing care should never consider the patient’s color and should focus on offering services to all seeking health care services (Groves et al., 2021). The disparities are due to the inequalities within the American system where specific individuals are accorded favor and others are denied. It stems from the slavery days when we had different services offered to particular individuals based on status and denied to others. Sadly, we have carried these inequalities to the modern days and still deny equal services to patients.

Cultural Competence

Offering culturally sensitive care is a vital component of patient-centered care. Nurses should strive to enhance their knowledge and ability to provide patient-centered care by reflecting on how their culture impacts the nurse-patient relationship. Being culturally competent allows a nurse to offer the best nursing care to patients while demonstrating cultural awareness for the patient’s beliefs, values, and race. Without cultural competence, nurses will struggle to offer care to patients because there will be a disconnect between the patient and the nurse. Since the nurse does not understand the values, beliefs, and race of the patient, they will offer nursing care without considering these aspects, which will be in direct collision with the beliefs or values of the patient. The result is that the patient will not receive adequate care since the care offered does not consider their needs and beliefs. Nursing care disparity occurs, and the patient feels neglected. Nurses might harbor stereotypes that limit their competency when caring for a culturally diverse population. These stereotypes deny the patient the care they need most since the nurse handles the patient like any other patient without personalizing the offered care.

Nursing care disparities occur when a nurse speaks too fast for the patient, and the patient does not understand or hear what the nurse is saying (Lake et al., 2018). The patient leaves the hospital more confused about what the nurse advised them, and they fail to follow the guidelines offered. The nurse can be judgmental towards patients based on their dressing, accent, beliefs, or race. Patients seen as being different are mostly disregarded, and nurses fail to pay close attention to them. These patients will receive inadequate care because no one is listening to them, and they receive mediocre care that does not factor in what they have said or their cultural needs. The patient fails to adhere to the proposed treatment since it does not consider their culture or go against them. Cultural competence should also respect the needs of patients whose religion does not allow blood transfusion. Therefore, there are different aspects of culture that nurses should have when offering care to patients. Without respect for the diverse cultures, nurses encounter when handling patients, they cannot provide competent nursing care, and some patients will be neglected. Nursing care will be focused on treatment, and compliance rates with treatment recommendations will decline.