For a long time now, community health nurses have been mandated with the responsibility to improve the health of American citizens through the accomplishment of their responsibilities. Some of the responsibilities of community health nurses include; identifying the impacts of diseases across the US, and managing and providing care for the people. Moreover, community health nurses are responsible for instituting and promoting wellness in the community spheres by spearheading mechanisms of change in regards to adoption of healthy lifestyles. However, in the actualization of their responsibilities, community health nurses face the challenge created by bias, stereotypes, and implicit bias that if not identified and avoided in the earliest stages of care provision, it may hinder the delivery of quality services.
The first step towards recognizing bias, stereotypes and implicit bias is by acknowledging that it exists and constantly reassessing personal feelings you may have about the situation. Implicit bias is a subconscious element of human beings that can interfere with best practices in the provision of nursing care ( Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017 ). The stages that follow include; understanding what the bias, implicit bias and stereotypes trigger in you, understand how it affects the provision of care, understanding the needs of your patients and sharing about the issue with colleagues. By sharing, a nurse removes the taboo while paving way for better nursing practices hence better outcomes.
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Culture competence is imperative in the provision of health care services as it creates parity and professionalism in handling patients with diverse backgrounds, values and beliefs. However, aspects of cultural dissonance and bias affect the entire process because it creates discord and conflicts by nurses when working in different cultural environments. To reduce cultural dissonance and bias, it is recommendable for nurses to adopt patient-centered approach to cultural competency and engage in training sessions that significantly influence their attitude towards the culture they are operating in, in a positive manner ( Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017 ). Moreover, gaining general knowledge about the community a nurse is serving besides paying attention to attributes and effects of bias and stereotypes in nursing profession helps reduce cultural dissonance and bias.
Reference
Cuevas, A. G., O’Brien, K., & Saha, S. (2017). What is the key to culturally competent care: Reducing bias or cultural tailoring?. Psychology & health , 32 (4), 493-507.
