Biases in healthcare are multidirectional—provider to patient and patient to provider, and also organization to provider and organization to patient. These biases are usually in the form of preferences. Some examples of preferences that are biased and can be from the patient or the provider are gender, skin tone, and even age. It does not matter which direction the biases are going; the result is a decrease in the quality of care provided. Patient preferences can lead to decreased quality of care received because the more qualified provider was not chosen. I want to point out a crucial difference in choosing a provider for modesty or religious reasons over stereotype reasons. For example, a female may prefer a female gynecologist for personal modesty reasons instead of stereotypical biases or to protect a possible religious or cultural custom that a women should not be alone with a man that is not her husband. A bias would come into play in
this situation if the female provider were chosen based on other preferences, such as race and age. However, biases from patients toward providers, while perhaps not purposeful, can harm the provider. Comments toward providers are usually about gender, age, and race and can be seen as insults. For example, a female doctor walks into the patient's room, and the family members think she is a nurse. A male nurse receives comments about his gender and role or a request from the patient for a female nurse. Questions can also come in the form of providing credentials and qualifications. Many providers have felt less than, unwelcomed, and devalued, which leads to low self- esteem, low self-worth, depression, and anxiety (Turner et al., 2021). Figure 1 identifies areas where implicit biases are predominantly seen in healthcare. We will take a deeper look into what a few of these look like in practice.
Figure 1. Areas of Bias
Sexual Identity
Body Weight
Socioeconomic status
Gender
Abieism
Race
Education Level
Geographical Location
Age
Noted. Adapted from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/biases-in-healthcare
Polling Question: Unconscious Biases
Page 101
Book Code: PCUS1525
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