Racism and Nursing Care Provision

This assignment delves into the influence of racism on the delivery of adequate nursing care, particularly in Australia. It highlights how societal racism, ingrained in political and economic structures, permeates healthcare, impacting both patients and nurses. The discussion explores the experiences of minority patients and nurses facing discrimination, the consequences for healthcare quality, and the need for culturally sensitive care to bridge the gap and ensure equitable treatment for all.

Running head: INFLUENCE OF RACISM
Question-3: Does racism inhibit the provision of adequate nursing care?
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1INFLUENCE OF RACISM
Racism is also regarded as a social determinant of health as some of the people in the
society thinks that they are of superior race based on their skin color, descent and origin. Racism
can be regarded as the sub part of racialism. Racialism can be described as the social system,
which divides the people into races and sub races based on their position in the society. The root
of racism lies absolutely outside the healthcare sector. It is closely associated with the political
power, military power, money and other resources. This makes racism as one of the social
determinant for health. As being a social determinant for health, racism inhibits the nursing care
for some of the people in Australia.
There are some populations present in Australia, such as Muslims and indigenous
Australians are said to experience racism. The ACS code of nursing directs the nurses to provide
healthcare to the people in spite of their cast and creed, the basis of racism be bound to the root
of the society (Mapedzahama et al., 2012). There is a term called transcultural healthcare, which
can be described as the way to provide culture specific care to the people, families and groups in
a manner that is sensitive to the culture of the people. The indigenous people in Australia still
experience the negative effect of racism. The constitution of Australia states that all of the
indigenous people possess equal right to access all the healthcare service (Bowler, 1993).
Nurses and the staffs very often face the racism in the healthcare centers. Minority nurses
reported that they have faced barriers in their careers due to their race and education
(Mapedzahama et al., 2012). In addition to these barriers there is also a big problem of patient
racism. Due to this many of the patients remain untreated or they are being misbehaved by some
of the nurses (Trueman, Mills, & Usher, 2011).

2INFLUENCE OF RACISM
Racial and ethnic minorities are greatly discriminated and are affected by the poor quality
of healthcare. Racial differences may show poor nursing care in the minorities such as the
aborigines or the indigenous peoples. This racism has shown increase is patients complaints,
poor or untreated patients, refusal of the patient care by the nurses and also refusal of some
specific treatments or procedures for the minority patients.
These incidents show that racism inhibits the way of providing adequate nursing care to
the people. The white Australian nurses have to admit the Aboriginal culture and its philosophy.
Only after that, the healthcare service for Australian aboriginal people can improve, as the base
of the healthcare system would build upon mutual understanding between the Australian people
with the different ethnicity (Henry, Houston, & Mooney, 2004). To conclude with, racism blocks
the mind of the healthcare providers who thinks themselves as the people of different races,
creeds and cultures, rather than thinking themselves as nurses.

3INFLUENCE OF RACISM
References:
Bowler, I. (1993). ‘They're not the same as us’: midwives' stereotypes of South Asian
descent maternity patients. Sociology of Health & Illness, vol.15 issue(2), p.157-
178.
Henry, B. R., Houston, S., & Mooney, G. H. (2004). Institutional racism in Australian
healthcare: a plea for decency. Medical Journal of Australia, 180(10), 517.
Mapedzahama, V., Rudge, T., West, S., & Perron, A. (2012). Black nurse in white space?
Rethinking the in/visibility of race within the Australian nursing workplace. Nursing
inquiry, 19(2), 153-164.
Trueman, S. W., Mills, J., & Usher, K. (2011). Racism in contemporary Australian
nursing. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, vol.35 issue(5), p.19.