Impacts of Bias and Stigma within the Nursing Role

This paper highlights the consequences of bias and stigma within the nursing role and discusses the importance of personal and professional values, strategies for maintaining self-integrity, and the importance of interpersonal communication skills.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 1
Clinical Reflection Nursing Assignment
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Impacts of Bias and Stigma within the Nursing Role
All the healthcare professionals have an ethical responsibility to provide optimal care,
equally to all suffering patients. Healthcare providers should never let the societal stigma
influence their responses and decisions. Unfortunately, it is not always the case, most of the
providers have chosen to adopt the societal opinions of the general public. Consequently, there is
evident bias and stigma within the healthcare system. This paper aims to highlight the
consequences of bias and stigma within the nursing role. The paper also discusses the importance
of having personal and professional values as a registered nurse, strategies of maintaining self-
integrity, and importance of developing interpersonal communication skills as a registered nurse.
In the healthcare sector, stigmatization manifests in three levels simultaneously-
intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural. Structurally it can be exhibited through poor
investment of resources and low quality of care standards (Knaack et al., 2017). Interpersonally,
stigma and bias is shown through the consumer-provider interactions, presence of discriminatory
behaviors, and negative attitudes. On the intrapersonal level, a client is subjected to self-stigma
and is afraid to seek medical care while a nurse may be reluctant to disclose their conditions to
their colleagues or even seek care (Knaack et al., 2017). Several studies have shown that the
marginalized that are subjected to bias and stigma have a higher mortality rate compared to the
rest; this can be credited to delayed medical interventions for the marginalized patients (Creel &
Tillman, 2011).
Bias and stigma present in the healthcare system and among healthcare providers has
been identified as a major barrier in seeking treatment and achieving recovery. In one study it
was reported that mental health consumers felt devalued, dismissed, and dehumanized by many
health care professionals whom they had contact (Ross & Goldner, 2013). Most of the patients

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complained of being excluded from decisions, made to wait for long when seeking help, health
providers holding back their health status information, and being treated in a demeaning manner.
Tyson (2013) in his study observed that stigma was a barrier in seeking clinical care even when
the primary reason for seeking admission was not related to the pre-existing psychiatric
disorder(Tyson, 2013).
In the workplace context, there is kind of an organizational culture where the healthcare
providers cannot disclose their psychological concerns. In return, many nurses are forced to rely
on self-treatment and are in process denied the necessary peer support for such conditions. There
is a conception that nurses with mental health concerns are less competent, unpredictable, and
dangerous not fit for the job (Golberstein et al. 2010).. As a result many nurses opt not to seek
medical attention and hence a decreased productivity in the healthcare system. In conclusion, it is
evident that bias and stigma issues can be attributed to delayed medical intervention,
discontinuation of treatment, and compromised therapeutic relationships. Stigmatization hurts
the delivery of quality care; registered nurses have the responsibility of providing a conducive
environment where individuals can engage each other in a non-judgmental and trusting way.
Importance of Personal and Professional Values in the Nursing Role
The essential factor of the nursing practice is the art of caring. The two are so
interdependent that it would be difficult to separate them. It takes moral personal and
professional values to provide the best care and create a connection with strangers. Caring is the
foundation value for the important therapeutic relationships built between the nurses and the
patients. The actions and thoughts that nurses have should be a clear reflection of what they
would like provided to them and their families. Nurses do interact with vulnerable ill people

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daily; they should possess the attitudes that allow them to show empathy, listen to, and respect
both the patients and their families (Berman & Snyder, 2014).
To be in a position to provide the best care to the consumers, it is necessary for the
registered nurses to have the following fundamental values: commitment, conscience,
competence, compassion, and confidence. Committed nurses are dedicated and always sacrifice
to go above and beyond what is expected of them. Their efforts should concentrate and focus on
determining and fulfilling the needs that a patient or situation requires (Shaw & Degazon, 2008).
Moreover, registered nurses are required to commit and make it a life-long mission of learning
the best ways to enhance the provision of care to consumers. In many situations, nurses are
forced to take care of people whose values conflict with theirs. It takes a whole lot of
commitment to provide care to such patients (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016).
Nurses with a conscience often show significant moral responsibilities; they go above
their job descriptions and always places the patients’ interests above. They have an objective and
priority of protecting the dignity of the patients. Competent nurses on the other hand avail
themselves to work early and make it their mission to be present daily to offer the care needed.
For the therapeutic relationship to work, nurses need to be compassionate. A top nurse combines
all these attributes; a high level of confidence is required to achieve this objective. It requires a
lot of confidence in skills and knowledge to be committed, to be compassionate, to maintain
competency, and to be conscience in the challenging environment of the nursing practice (Moyo
et al., 2016).
Strategies for Maintaining Self-Integrity
Within the healthcare practice there arise some situations that can threaten self-integrity.
Among these situations include conflicting interests and expectations, remunerations, dealing

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with errors, and peer pressure. For a nurse, maintaining self-integrity ensures an optimal
relationship with the consumers (Lachman, 2010). Healthcare practice is an interdisciplinary
practice; having a difference in opinions and views amongst the colleagues is common. For
example, nurses are expected to handle situations from a holistic perspective while physicians
formulate a differential diagnosis. This difference in opinion and view is likely to result in a
conflict. It is in balancing personal expectations and the professional realities that one maintains
self-integrity.
One key strategy in maintaining self-integrity is adopting moral courage to stand for what
is morally right. Nurses exhibit moral courage to voice their points of view without the fear of
consequences. Having knowledge of the situation, practicing emotional control, and assertively
addressing a moral problem are the factors that help one act in a morally courageous way. Often,
a healthcare provider finds themselves in a conversation with a family member of a dying patient
who demands that everything is done to save their life. Such a situation requires the knowledge
of the problem and a high level of emotional control to assertively address the issue (Sastrawan
et al. 2019).
Healthcare provision at times necessitates risk-taking. If the risk fails, nurses require their
moral courage to understand that they acted in the best interest of the patient. Additionally,
healthcare practice just like the majority of other careers have bodies governing their standards
of practice. Governing bodies have come up with a code of ethics and regulations and provided
professional values and standards to guide the medical practitioners (Nursing and Midwifery
Board of Australia, 2016). Adhering to these professional obligations and regulations is another
strategy to ensure self-integrity is maintained. When healthcare practitioners forego their
professional commitments, their self-integrity is threatened. Professionals that have moral

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courage appreciate that maintaining a high level of integrity is more crucial than avoiding the
undesirable consequences resulting from their moral actions (Lachman, 2010).
Importance of Interpersonal Communication Skills
Healthcare provision is an interdisciplinary practice. All stakeholders in the healthcare
practice are required to collaborate effectively to optimize better healthcare. The registered nurse
is usually at the center of this collaboration; creating the necessary partnerships with the patients
and the relevant care providers. Additionally, the collaboration of different professional teams
requires that all parties recognize and respect an individual’s professional values. Significantly,
the collaboration necessitates the development of mutual trust, holding open discussions, and
sharing the responsibility of decision-making (American Nurses Association, 2015). Also,
nursing collaborates methods such as informatics, maintaining health records, and established
processes to minimize errors. Therefore it is vital that a registered nurse is well equipped with
the relevant interpersonal communication skills to help provide safe and quality care.
The success of therapeutic relationship highly depends on the Interpersonal
communication skills. When adopting the consumer-centered approach, it is crucial that the
nurses treat the consumer with the utmost respect. The care provider assures that the patient has
all the required information and provides answers to all their questions. As a result, the patient is
in a position to make the final and the right decision regarding the preferred treatment. Nurses
have an ethical obligation of maintaining and improving a conducive environment that enables
quality health care provision. There is extensive evidence that adverse, demoralizing conditions
contribute to errors, ineffective delivery of care, workplace conflict and stress, and moral

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distress. Such a conducive environment is achievable where effective interpersonal
communication is maintained (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016).

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References
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