S.Res. 172: A resolution declaring racism a public health crisis – Bill Summary
The S.Res. 172 bill has been introduced to highlight how racism remains a serious problem in healthcare, to the point of becoming a crisis. The resolution suggests to take actions towards resolving it, addressing racial inequality and disparities in all areas of the sector. The bill has yet to be reviewed by committee before its’ legislation can progress to the whole chamber of Congress.
Impact of Bill on Nursing Practice Standard: Ethics
The bill facilitates support for various nursing standards and competencies; however, the one that stands as most important is ethical approach to care. Race- and ethnicity-related specifics of healthcare are a crucial part of nursing ethics, as they affect heavily the whole process of care. Positive changes in the demographic situation, as well as the multinational composition of the population give rise to particular concerns about cultural issues in medicine. Many people think of cultural competence only as a set of skills needed to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. While this aspect is, indeed, important, it is far from the only one that matters. Markey (2020) makes a good point that “examining cultural competence development through a moral reasoning lens can help empower nurses, whilst nurturing commitment to providing quality care for culturally diverse patients” (p. 2). Thus, in order to employ a proper culture care one, indeed, must maintain immersive knowledge about different cultures of which the multinational society of the U.S. consists. The cultural competency in nursing applies to the patients, their families, and one’s colleagues.
Impact of Bill on Own Nursing Practice
The proper culture care includes a deep understanding of different social insights from a wide variety of national backgrounds combined with immersive knowledge of the most important traditions and particular qualities of various communities. These aspects of patient’s background may seem excessive to consider at first; however, they hold an essential value to understanding the patient’s mindset and relation to treatment. This, ultimately, allows the health care workers improve and adapt their culturally competent treatment plans according to their patients’ personal needs and values. When socio-cultural differences between patient and health care workers are not incorporated into practice, it can lead to patient dissatisfaction, non-compliance with recommendations and health consequences. Culture plays a large role in shaping health values, beliefs and behavior. With the aim of providing nurses with the knowledge and skills to solve cross-cultural problems in the clinical environment, the bill could support the development of my own and my colleagues’ cultural competence.
Communication Strategies
It is important to make peers and legislators understand how cultural competence affects healthcare, and what are the consequences of racial inequality for the industry. The sociocultural component of care refers to the willingness and ability to communication with others to conduct a constructive dialogue on the basis of the partner’s own cultural and social background. Lack of competent knowledge of both one’s own and someone else’s culture is one of the main causes of conflicts, crises, and misunderstandings, which can ultimately worsen the healthcare outcomes for patients. It would be logical to emphasize that nurses should constantly engage in learning to improve and enhance their understanding of cultural competence, and that the bill would help in achieving that. The presentation would also explain that health care workers should extensively use educational practices to adapt healthy mechanisms of interacting with patients, and that it is necessary for nurses to get rid of culture-centrism in assessing people’s behavior, actively forming an intercultural tolerance. Only in a tolerant environment can exist a healthy communication with people of a different culture, openness, and freedom from prejudice.
Community Impact of the Bill
Provision of culturally tailored and competent care is an issue that is rather actual for my community. As a practicing nurse, I have noticed that standards of healthcare often do not address racial and ethnical differences, nor do they take into account specific aspects of non-White cultures. Educational programs are necessary in order to tackle the problem, and I think that the passing of this bill could provide the incentive for both the community and the legislators to take action. Moreover, with the introduction of the bill, it would be helpful to also educate the people on the concepts of tolerance and cultural communication alongside the nurses.
Specific Community Concern: Latino Population
I have seen how Latino individuals and families struggle with reaching for medical help firsthand as a nurse practitioner. A significant factor that contributes to the question of unreachable treatment is the fact that, generally, health care programs are not culturally tailored. This presents an issue to the Latino population due to their negative attitude towards needing help, especially medical, as well as an overall stigma towards the people with substance use disorder. Pinedo et al. (2018) supply that “Latinos frequently expressed concerns that providers lack ‘real world’ experiences and have never personally experienced an alcohol or drug problem” (p. 4). This leads to a common belief in the inefficiency of said treatment. If the bill is passed, it could help address this specific issue of ethnical and cultural misunderstanding by offering more tailored and empathetic treatment programs that could be introduced into my practice and my community.
References
GovTrack.us. (2022). S.Res. 172 — 117th Congress: A resolution declaring racism a public health crisis. Web.
Markey, K. (2020). Moral reasoning as a catalyst for cultural competence and culturally responsive care. Nursing Philosophy, 22(1). Web.
Pinedo, M., Zemore, S., & Rogers, S. (2018). Understanding barriers to Specialty substance abuse treatment among Latinos. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 94, 1–8. Web.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2019). 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Detailed Tables