Addressing Bias assignment

Purpose
In today’s current healthcare settings, the increasing diversity, globalization, and expanding technologies produce complex ethical pressures that influence nursing practice and practice outcomes. To be effective in a master’s-prepared advanced nurse practice role it is important to understand personal values, beliefs, strengths, and limitations. The purpose of this assessment is to promote introspective reflection related to implicit and/or explicit personal biases. Students will develop a plan to reduce bias and promote personal and professional growth.

Criteria for Content

Complete a self-inventory on personal biases you hold. The biases might be implicit or explicit.

In a one to two-page summary, address the following.
Identify your selected specialty track (education, executive, family nurse practitioner, healthcare policy, or nursing informatics).
Discuss how biases can impact outcomes in selected nursing practice settings.
Identify personal biases and attitudes toward people with various cultural, gender, sexual orientation, age, weight, and religions that are different than your own.
Select one bias that you have.
Develop one strategy to reduce this bias.
Preparing the paper

Submission Requirements

Application: Use Microsoft Word 2013™ to create the written assessment.
Length: The paper (excluding the title page and reference page) is two pages.
A minimum of two (2) scholarly literature references must be used. Make sure to use references that are current, no older than 5 years.

Best Practices in Preparing the Project

The following are best practices in preparing this project.

Review directions thoroughly.
Follow submission requirements.
Make sure all elements on the grading rubric are included.
Rules of grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation are followed and consistent with formal, scientific writing.
Title page, body of paper, and reference page must follow APA guidelines as found in the current edition of the manual. This includes the use of headings for each section of the paper except for the introduction where no heading is used.
Ideas and information that come from scholarly literature must be cited and referenced correctly.
A minimum of two (2) scholarly literature references must be used.
Abide by CCN academic integrity policy.

ANSWER

Bias in Nursing Education

Reports of bias in nursing education, especially against men in a work environment that women have previously dominated, has been a constant not only raised by men but has also been observed by the public (Carnevale & Priode, 2018). This calls for certain questions to subconsciously linger, like, for instance, are men not sufficiently prepared to pursue nursing education? Does the nursing program and instructors discriminate against men, or does the public in generation create an environment that is not conducive for male nurses to thrive? Gender bias in nursing education is an issue that has not been appropriately addressed by relevant authorities, with male students confessing that they face a hostile environment both at school and during their residency. There are various reasons that this kind of bias has continued to be an issue in nursing education. First, the general perception is that men are not considered professional nurses as women have mainly dominated the job. Additionally, studies suggest that most patients prefer to have a female caregiver, suggesting implicit bias that continues to be nurtured by the public (Kellet & Fitton, 2017).

Consequently, such biases and preconceived notion from the instructors, colleagues and the general public of men not being good nurses have prompted different outcomes in the nursing practice. First, male nursing students feel incompetent, especially when they receive bias treatment against them, especially by doctors and other nurses (Carnevale & Priode, 2018). The notion of male not being the ‘acceptable-typical-female-nurse’ push men to shy away from pursuing nursing courses. With more men avoiding nursing education, more women continue to be recruited as nurses, ultimately making the trend continue and the issue becoming harder to solve.

Every person has their level of bias that are either implicit or explicit. Personal biases are common, especially towards people who come from different cultural, are of different gender, race, sexual orientation, and religions. Such bias often affects various social aspects of life, ranging from education, access to public resources, and access to health care, among others. For instance, the bias between white people and black people in the United States has been a common concern. There have been reported incidences of black people reporting and complaining that white doctors or nurses ignored them while their counterparts were given first priority. America has also seen incidences of Asian attacks. This racial bias has been prompted by the Coronavirus, with people accusing Asians of the cause of the virus, thus attacking them (Tessler et al, 2020). Religious bias between Muslims and Christians has also been rampant, with incidences of terrorism across the globe reported to eliminate ‘the infidels’ by the Muslims, showing bias against Christians.

I have a bias against people suffering from obesity. This is because I feel like they have themselves to blame, as most of the causes of obesity are too much intake of junk and other unhealthy foodstuffs. My bias stems from the belief that they could/ and still can choose a better lifestyle choice and watch over their weight. However, I can change my bias by implementing various strategies that help reduce bias, specifically withholding judgment (Schultz & Baker, 2017).

According to Schultz & Baker (2017), withholding judgment is a good anti-bias strategy that can help me gather more information about people suffering from obesity and other weight issues. It will allow more to gain a broader perspective and understanding their conditions better before making any assumptions and stereotypical remarks. It will also help me learn to live with other people and accept them as they are, regardless of their flaws and weaknesses.

References

Carnevale, T., & Priode, K. (2018). “The good ole’girls’ nursing club”: The male student perspective. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 29(3), 285-291.

Kellett, P., & Fitton, C. (2017). Supporting transvisibility and gender diversity in nursing practice and education: embracing cultural safety. Nursing Inquiry, 24(1), e12146.

Schultz, P. L., & Baker, J. (2017). Teaching strategies to increase nursing student acceptance and management of unconscious bias. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(11), 692-696.

Tessler, H., Choi, M., & Kao, G. (2020). The anxiety of being Asian American: Hate crimes and negative biases during the COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(4), 636-646.