Responding to Diversity: A Reflective Essay on Healthcare Practices

This essay explores the concept of intersectionality and its relevance in healthcare, using a personal reflection to analyze how cultural location, attitudes, values, and beliefs can influence caregiver practices. It provides a scenario illustrating intersectionality and its impact on the LGBTQ community. The essay emphasizes the importance of culturally safe healthcare practices to eliminate biased treatment, including personal awareness, acknowledgment, and empathy. The author proposes advocacy initiatives and research on population groups like the LGBTQ community to address and mitigate bias in healthcare delivery. The essay concludes with recommendations for healthcare providers to foster a more inclusive and equitable environment for all patients.

Responding to Diversity 1
RESPONDING TO DIVERSITY
Name
Course
Tutor
University
Date

Responding to Diversity 2
Introduction
This essay defines Intersectionality and provides a scenario in which Intersectionality is
evident. The essay also takes a personal reflection to evaluate how cultural location, attitudes,
values and beliefs influence caregiver’s practices in administering treatment to patients. Besides,
it focuses on cultural safe healthcare practices that should be undertaken to eliminate biased
treatment of patients. Lastly, the essay will outline personal reflection of how healthcare provider
will advocate for zero tolerance on biased treatment of patients through advocacy initiatives.
Intersectionality stems for a theory developed by an American civil rights advocate,
Kimberlie Williams Crenshaw. Intersectionality refers to a study that is centered on overlapping
social identities such as oppression, prejudice and domination (Bauer 2014). The purpose of
Intersectionality is to examine how various aspects of social, biological and cultural interact in
both multiple and simultaneous degrees. Intersectionality is mainly applicable to women
although all gender can be affected by this situation in the community (Wepa 2015). In essence,
Intersectionality is used to explain the nature of power which implies that issues relating to
minority groups are likely to be ignored by people in authority.
The most recent case that I have experienced regarding Intersectionality relates to
LGBTQ community. The population of gay people in the community is gradually increasing. I
understand that in my community, the gay people often seclude themselves from the rest of the
community as a result of prejudice that is levelled against them (Holland 2017). Most of these
individuals fear to come out and fight for their rights and stigmatization that comes with being
identified as gay. Recently, I happened to have injured my arm and I needed to visit my local
hospital often for checkup and treatment. During my visits, I used to have conversation with

Responding to Diversity 3
individual that I met at the waiting room area. From Monday to Wednesday, not a single gay
person would show up in the hospital. However, they used to come from Thursdays to Sundays.
I decided to inquire as to why this was the case, one of the gay people I had met frequently
informed me that there are two physicians at the hospital and the one who comes in from
Monday to Wednesday discriminates against the LGBTQ community and sometimes refuses to
see them or prescribe medication to them. Therefore, they chose to visit when a different
physician is on duty.
I agree that, cultural location, attitudes, values and beliefs play a significant role in
determining the care of patients. In my assessment, these aspects enable the nurses and
physicians to identify ways in which a patient’s cultural location influences their perception,
beliefs and values in relation to health, wellness, suffering and death (Aarons and Sawitzky
2006). More so, I tend to agree that these aspects forms the basis for accepting, respecting and
acknowledging human diversity. They also assist nurses and physicians in facilitating holistic
assessment with respect to a patient’s cultural background (Taylor 2012). Nonetheless, I think
that cultural values and belief systems help to establish a good relationship between a patient and
a caregiver that eventually strengthen the commitment of nurses and physicians. Besides, these
values and beliefs can be integrated to facilitate the treatment of patients. I also agree that these
aspects enable the nurses and physicians to be open minded which often leads to alternative care
intervention such as meditation (Davis, Birks and Chapman 2015).
I think these aspects of cultural setting, beliefs and values may affect patients care as a
result of some cultural practice placing high value on health while others tend to believe that
cultural rituals and practices play a significant role in health promotion and prevention of illness.
Besides, I agree that distance and space orientation in terms of open and closed spaces may also

Responding to Diversity 4
vary among cultures. This can be attested by the fact that studies indicate that people that are
brought up in congested cities may prefer closeness as opposed to cultures where people are
distant to each other. I think that family dynamics play a significant role when it comes to
patients care with respect to roles, power, decision making, interactions as well as
communication patterns. Other aspects that may influence patients care based on cultural
practices, values and beliefs is self-efficacy and time orientation (Browne et al 2009).
Cultural safety refers to policy initiatives that are aimed at respecting cultural boundaries
while providing health services. There are a number of culturally safe health care practices that
can be effective in eliminating biased treatment of patients. I think the first approach is through
personal awareness. Personal awareness in my views involves the process of looking towards
ones beliefs and values that are likely to lead to biased treatment (Baillie and Matiti 2013).
Through recognizing the bias, I think a nurse or physician can be able to develop self-regulatory
framework that is significant in reducing bias in the treatment of patients. I tend to agree that
acquiring personal awareness may require internal compass that is significant in communication.
I recommend this practice because it is significant in helping nurses acknowledge and learn
acceptable attitudes and behaviors that helps in mitigating bias in treatment (Denny and Earlie
2010).
Another practice that I find useful in eliminating cultural bias in the treatment of patients
is acknowledgement. I think the nurses need to first acknowledge that there is a problem of
cultural bias when it comes to treating patients (Grant and Letzring 2003). I agree that
acknowledgment will lead to accountability and responsibility to influence the perception of
medical providers. Moreover, I think that medical care givers should have empathy. This is
particularly significant in understanding the circumstances that the patient is undergoing. I think

Responding to Diversity 5
nurses can approach this aspect by perceiving the treatment from the patients view to get a
glimpse of the situation of a patient in order to determine their needs so as to provide without an
element of biasness. Another practice to avoid biasness relates to advocacy programs, I believe
that nurses should provide support for their patients with compassion and professionalism (Davis
2013). Lastly, I think cultural safety programs should be taught to nurses so that it helps them to
increase awareness and recognize bias to easily prevent it while administering treatment.
As a health service provider I would recommend extensive research on the population
such as LGBTQ community. My primary responsibility will be to determine various aspects
within my practice that directly influence the perception of treatment by this group. For this
purpose, I will send out a questionnaire to LGBTQ community as well as other people to
determine the areas and the circumstances that they find treatment to be biased. Based on the
information collected, I will prioritize the main areas where I tend to experience biasness while
treating patients (Coleman 2008). After, I will brainstorm the findings with my colleagues in
order to best understand how these problems come about during treatment of patients. The
findings from my colleagues will play a crucial role in developing counter measure mechanism
to the problems. I will write down a checklist that can be used by fellow health care providers to
assess potential areas of biasness in order to have a better understanding on how to approach
treatment without an element of bias (Wehbe-Alamah et al 2011). Lastly, I will recommend that
patients review their caregivers in terms of biasness so as to follow up on the feedback from
respondent in order to optimize treatments that completely remove bias.

Responding to Diversity 6
Reference List
Aarons, G.A. and Sawitzky, A.C., (2006). Organizational culture and climate and mental health
provider attitudes toward evidence-based practice. Psychological services, 3(1), p.61.
Baillie, L. and Matiti, M., (2013). Dignity, equality and diversity: an exploration of how
discriminatory behaviour of healthcare workers affects patient dignity. Diversity & Equality in
Health & Care, 10(1).
Bauer, G.R., (2014). Incorporating intersectionality theory into population health research
methodology: Challenges and the potential to advance health equity. Social science & medicine,
110, pp.10-17.
Browne, A.J., Varcoe, C., Smye, V., Reimer‐Kirkham, S., Lynam, M.J. and Wong, S., (2009).
Cultural safety and the challenges of translating critically oriented knowledge in practice.
Nursing Philosophy, 10(3), pp.167-179.
Coleman, C.L., (2008). Perceived and real barriers for men entering nursing: Implications for
gender diversity. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 15(3), p.148.
Davis, J., Birks, M. and Chapman, Y.B., (2015). Inclusive Practice for Health Professionals.
Oxford University Press.
Davis, L.J., (2013). The disability studies reader. Routledge.
Denny, E. and Earlie, S. ed., (2010). Sociology for nurses. Polity press, Cambridge.
Grant, L.F. and Letzring, T.D., (2003). Status of cultural competence in nursing education: A
literature review. Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health, 9(2), p.6.
Holland, K., (2017). Cultural awareness in nursing and health care: an introductory text.
Routledge.

Responding to Diversity 7
Taylor, E.J., (2012). Religion: a clinical guide for nurses. Springer Publishing Company.
Wehbe-Alamah, H., McFarland, M., Macklin, J. and Riggs, N., (2011). Online Journal of
Cultural Competence in Nursing and Healthcare. Online Journal of Cultural Competence in
Nursing and Healthcare Vol, 1(1).
Wepa, D. ed., (2015). Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. Cambridge University Press.