9 // Life Expectancy For All

Y'all- This week blew my mind for many different reasons but the most impactful to me was the fact that race, sexual orientation and can effect your life expectancy based on a few factors but one of which being health care provider bias.

"Despite their explicit commitment to providing equal care, some studies suggest that implicit prejudice and stereotyping can impact the judgment and behavior of health care providers when they interact with stigmatized patients." (Zestcott, 2016)

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Those who are in positions to heal us may actually withhold some of that depending on the patient? As a healthcare provider myself, I am appalled. Although cleaning teeth is not as life threatening as other healthcare providers, I cannot imagine treating any of my patients any differently based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, race or ethnicity.

** Please envision my jaw dropped when reading and citing this article **

"Controlled experiments have found that providers’ perceptions and treatment recom- mendations for hypothetical Black patients dif- fered significantly from those made for hypothetical White patients with the exact same symptoms" (Zestcott, 2016)

There is no excuse for this. This isn't just disrespecting another human rights, this is in effect harming their lives which is in direct opposition to the hippocratic oath they take

DO NO HARM

The same article also mentions more negative attitudes towards lower socioeconomic class, overweight patients, drug users, spinal cord injuries and wheelchair bound patients. It is so strange to me that is seems like healthcare provides seem to favor healthy people?

Of all the different training techniques to eliminate or minimize healthcare implicit bias, Perspective taking made the most sense to me. It’s the one that comes most naturally to me and where I would assume treatment of biases would start.  Encouraging them to imagine what others are experiencing or hearing has been an effective technique even in my own life. I also see the Multiple strategies technique as being a very useful technique as it attacks many sides of the foundation of the implicit biases. Counter stereotyping, stereotyping replacement thinking and increasing positive contact with out-group members.

I really believe that seeking positive contact with those who are different is the real game changer. Stereotypes can be broken by interacting with real, unique people on an individual level.  This technique has the power to permeate many different social disparities and inequalities. It may be because I am a bit of a softy and my heart can break for just about anyone- but I find it is hard to treat others poorly when you know their name, and even just a part of their life story. Although it is not realistic to have every patient share their stories before receiving treatment- perhaps if medical professionals did spend time seeking active positive contact with the out-group peoples we would see an overall change in the health of these communities and people groups.

Health should not be a privilege

Zestcott, C. A., Blair, I. V., & Stone, J. (2016). Examining the presence, consequences, and reduction of implicit bias in health care: A narrative review. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations,19(4), 528-542. doi:10.1177/1368430216642029