University Nursing Assignment: Racism and Its Impact on Patient Care

This nursing assignment critically examines the detrimental effects of racism on healthcare delivery, focusing on how racial bias impacts patient care and outcomes. The essay highlights instances of racial discrimination, including the experiences of Aboriginal Australians and Asian women, and how these biases lead to psychological distress, cultural insensitivity, and disparities in healthcare quality. It explores how preconceived notions and stereotypes undermine the principle of unbiased care, causing deficiencies in healthcare delivery and affecting patient well-being. The assignment references studies and research to support the argument that racism in nursing compromises patient safety and calls for a more culturally competent approach to address these inequities, emphasizing the need for nurses to understand and respect diverse cultural backgrounds to ensure equitable healthcare provision. The assignment concludes by emphasizing the importance of avoiding stereotypes and providing fair treatment to all patients regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Nursing Assignment
Name
University

Running Head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 2
Does racism inhibit adequate provision of nursing
Racism leads to harmful actions just because a person is perceived to come from a
certain ethnic background. That prejudice based on the color of skin or a certain ethnicity
should impact the healthcare delivery to a patient is unjust and compromises the health of a
person is unfortunate. The impact of the differential interpersonal behaviour on the patient
who is already facing health issues can occur in the form of psychological distress (Kelaher,
Ferdinand, & Paradies, 2014). Patients who approach the healthcare system for relief from
disease or illness return with negative experiences that causes them mental agony and the
purpose of the healthcare system stands defeated. This also means that when the profession of
nursing is laced with racism the care provision becomes unsafe for the patient. Reacting to
the color of the patient, in an overt or a covert manner occurs because of prejudice and
preconceived notions about the people of color being inferior than white people.
In case of the Aboriginal people from Australia, the effects of colonisation, poverty
have marginalised and disempowered the population. When they try to access healthcare, the
racism that they have to endure is often due to the insensitivity of the white nurses who have
little regard to the history that was unkind to this section of the population. The delay in
seeking healthcare, their disengagement from the mainstream society, their cultural values
that make them see health and well-being in a different light are often ignored. This occurs
due to a lack of cultural insensitivity (Trueman, Mills, & Usher, 2011).The racial
discrimination has caused so much distress that the Aboriginal patients in Australia prefer to
get culturally competent care from nurses who belong to their own community because they
are understood better. This ensures better health outcomes for people who are discriminated
against in healthcare settings on the grounds of race (Kelly, et al., 2014).
Typification of Asian women in health services and the perception that all of them are
alike has led to racial discrimination that undermines individual differences among them

Running Head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 3
(Bowler, 1993). This has even led to improper delivery of care. Their low pain thresholds
have been perceived as too much 'noise making' by all Asian women. Derogatory references
to responses when experiencing pain can often result in delivery of unequal care and raises
the possibility of inequities in healthcare delivery. The impact of not speaking English as a
first language, differences in perception of colored patients, typification of a class of patients
based on their ethnicity can cause deficiencies in the delivery of healthcare. This can affect
the quality of care and is against the principle of unbiased care.
In conclusion, experiences of a certain kind with one or a few patients are often used to
stereotype the whole ethnic group. This causes gaps in delivery of care. Often patients who
are discriminated against are dealt with in an unfair manner.

Running Head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 4
References
Bowler, I. (1993). 'They are not the same as us': midwives' stereotypes of south-asian
maternity patients. Sociology of health and illness, 15(2):157-178.
Kelaher, M., Ferdinand, A., & Paradies, Y. (2014). Experiencing racism in health care: the
mental health impacts for Victorian Aboriginal communities. Medical Journal of
Australia, 201(1):44-7.
Kelly, J., West, R., Gamble, J., Sidebotham, M., Carson, V., & Duffy, E. (2014). She knows
how we feel': Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander childbearing women's
experience of Continuity of Care with an Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander midwifery student. Women Birth, 27(3):157-62.
Trueman, S., Mills, J., & Usher, K. (2011). Racism in Contemporary Australian Nursing.
Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 35(5):19-22.

Running Head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 5