Question

How does the community health nurse recognize bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias within the community? How should the nurse address these concepts to ensure health promotion activities are culturally competent? Propose strategies that you can employ to reduce cultural dissonance and bias to deliver culturally competent care. Include an evidence-based article that address the cultural issue. Cite and reference the article in APA format.

Answer 1

QUESTION :- How does the community health nurse recognize bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias within the community?

ANSWER:- It can be hard to admit you might be biased toward some of your patients, but it happens, and the best approach to fixing implicit bias is to recognize it and then constantly reassess how you feel and how your approach is working. Inherent bias is a subconscious human trait and frequently interferes with best nursing practices. Recognizing an inherent bias means that you understand you might have certain feelings about a specific population, a person’s or groups appearance, or mannerisms that need to be addressed and dealt with to provide the best possible care.

QUESTION :- How should the nurse address these concepts to ensure health promotion activities are culturally competent? Propose strategies that you can employ to reduce cultural dissonance and bias to deliver culturally competent care?

ANSWER:- 1. Personal awareness. This is the process of looking inward to recognize beliefs and values that can lead to unconscious bias. Recognition can lead to the development of self-regulatory behaviors to mitigate the influence of bias on patient interactions.3 Acquiring personal awareness requires an internal compass that's used to guide daily interactions. This compass can help nurses recognize acceptable and unacceptable attitudes and behaviors and stay on the right path when faced with the continual threat of unconscious bias. It forces nurses to constantly look inward and creates an awareness of how they're perceived by others, laying the foundation for a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship.

2. Acknowledgment. Without acknowledgment that a problem exists, no action can be taken to solve the problem. With acknowledgment comes the acceptance of accountability and responsibility to make a difference. Nurses and other healthcare professionals must move to suppress unconscious bias by initiating responses to foster positive behaviors, such as empathy.

3. Empathy. Healthcare professionals must be able to empathize with patients and their circumstances to understand what they're feeling. Nurses can develop empathy by making a conscious effort to understand the patient's situation, become fully immersed in the patient's point of view, and get a sense of what it's like to be

walking in the patient's shoes.4 Most people naturally have a sense of empathy, but some patients and situations can raise a barrier to empathy. For example, caring for patients who participate in risk-taking behaviors that result in adverse health outcomes can make it more difficult for a caregiver to be empathetic. Refusing to acknowledge this emotional necessity can produce negative outcomes during patient interactions and care. To overcome these barriers to empathy, healthcare providers must consciously make an effort to recognize and acknowledge that the barriers exist and deliberately implement a practice that aligns with unbiased patient care.

4. Advocacy. Support for patients as they navigate a complex healthcare system is called advocacy. Nurses can be patient advocates by assisting with communication with other members of the healthcare team, identifying best treatment options, and ensuring that a patient's rights aren't overlooked. In the presence of unconscious bias, nurses' advocacy can support patients to receive the individualized care they need. Nurses must advocate for patients with tact, compassion, and professionalism, and communicate and collaborate with other healthcare team members to support the patients' needs. Patients should be able to sense that their nurses intend to do what's best for them to provide safe outcomes.

5. Education. Enhanced knowledge is central to raising awareness, recognizing the existence of unconscious bias, and reducing its prevalence. Education can be introduced in formal curricula for healthcare providers and nurses. Another approach is to offer education that focuses on sensitivity and the existence of unconscious bias in healthcare facilities. Nurses can educate others during their daily interactions to raise awareness about the consequences of unconscious bias. Routine staff meetings can provide another forum for education, giving nurses an opportunity to share their experiences and beliefs and to explore options to mitigate this challenge. Educating others about unconscious bias helps create an environment that fosters equal treatment for all patients with an open and accepting approach. Besides strengthening the knowledge base, education creates an atmosphere promoting a strong nurse-patient relationship based on empathy and understanding, ultimately resulting in high-quality and equitable patient care.