Healthcare Services - Essay Example

Healthcare Services Affiliation: a) Recruiting doctors and nurses with particular backgrounds (e.g. race, gender specialty) to work at the primary care clinics-will it make a difference? Patients tend to go frequently to health care clinics that have doctors and nurses with similar race, gender, culture or specialty similar to them. This according to research by Changs, et al. (2006) is so because they can communicate better than with the regular doctors and nurses. Patients that refuse treatment due to cultural differences will now start having treatments and even follow-up as they will be satisfied with their cultural doctor. A study by Scarpaci, (1988 indicates that the plan to improve patient satisfaction based on the increase in a diverse health care workforce will obviously be a success and the patients are more likely to make the health care providers their primary physicians and nurses. b) Orienting new and current primary care doctors in how to effectively interact with patients-what guidance would you provide Research as mentioned by Changs, et al. (2006) indicate that doctors need to have better communication skills with the patients as this will enable them to create rapport with them. This will enable the patient to freely discuss their problems and hence get the proper treatment. When a doctor has the ability to connect with the patient on a higher level and understand them, the patients get maximum satisfaction and trust the doctors enough to not only return but to tell others about the quality of care and satisfaction received. According to Hall, Blanch-Hartigan, & Roter, (2011) doctors and nurses need training on how to interact better with patients as well as on how to accept individuals of other cultures and hide their own cultural bias which will prevent them from providing the best care service minimizing patient satisfaction. 2. a) To what extent would attitudes and expectations of medical care associated with race and gender account for lower utilization of preventive health services in African-American men? There is much speculation and a strong myth about the Africa-American men using the health care services compared to the women and the whites. These myths have been inculcated into the heads of these men and they end up not seeking treatment simply because research indicates that many of them do not seek treatment at all. These African-American men are afraid that going to hospital before one is sick is a reduction of their masculinity and hence the greatest reason they avoid taking up preventive services according to the research by Schnittker, Pescosolido & Croghan, (2005). On the other hand, preventive services for the white men is taken as purely as a way to prevent themselves. Since they have no cultural issues with masculinity, their utilization of the services are higher than that of the Africa-American as mentioned by McKinlay, Trachtenberg, Marceau, Katz & Fischer, (2014) b) Social cognitive theory addresses person and environmental factors in explaining health behaviors. How would constructs of person and environment suggest factors to consider in promoting greater use of preventive health services among African-American men? The African-American men have been constrained by the environment in which they live in to an extent that it prevents them from engaging in the preventive care services. According to Glanz & Bishop, (2010), harmful behaviors most common in some of the neighborhoods these African-American men reside in may cause problems in them attending some of the services. Fullilove & Fullilove, (2005) also explains that the social structures which these African-American men are subjected to on a daily basis act as constraints to them attending the preventive care services. They have to attend to the problems created by these social structures first before any other action is taken by them towards their health. They may need social support to help them attain all the mentioned above. c) How would community-based participatory research principles be reflected in the development of an intervention to promote the utilization of preventive health services by African-American men? According to research by Israel, et al (2008), in order to promote utilization of preventive health service, it is important for these African-American men to be committed to their health needs. The commitment will only come through a community-based participatory research where there needs, fears, wants on the preventive services will be aired and they will assist in formulating a solution that will enable them accept the services. The CBPR assist the community to engage more in increasing of the health equity. The CBPR study is way better in dealing with health research and especially concerning the African-American men as it solves some of the challenges experienced by the regular research study. Some of the issues it solves as mentioned by Bertakis, et al. (1998) include eliminating the external validity and it integrates the culturally-based evidence. The language used in CBPR is localized to the target community which is the opposite of the regular research study. The fact that it addresses these challenges makes it much better. 3. a) Other board members caution that widely held cultural values will lead to strong public resistance. What evidence might they cite to support their position? According to the study by Jones & Bayer (2007), when a policy affects negatively a certain culture, their values and belief systems, they tend to resist and this resistance is supported by other cultures as well. This is so because research indicates that cultures are individualistic and hence anything that seems to go against this doctrine will definitely be resisted. A perfect example is on the motorcycle helmets which sparked cultural debates. The other evidence of the issue that will cause public resistance is provided by Kellermann & Rivara, (2012) which explains the research on guns. Guns were proposed to be allowed to be kept privately and owned by civilians for self-defense purposes. This was however against some cultures and especially the republicans and hence was vehemently opposed despite the necessity debate. b) What steps might you take to generate public support for your policy proposal? It is important according to Gollust, Niederdeppe & Barry, (2013) to seek partners in order to reach a wider number of people and advocate to the policy support. The bets partners in this case are politicians who will use their political ideologies to gain support of the mass about the importance of the policy and hence support it. The followers of the politicians and their fanatics will definitely support the policy. The other way is to use advertisements featuring the extreme negative effects of obesity to an individual’s social life. Most people care more about their social life and welfare than they do their health according to the study by Springer & Mouzon (2011). In this regards therefore, if this weakness can be used, then many people can support the policy and become serious with the issue. c) Some say the impact evaluation of the prior mass-media campaign to prevent obesity by changing dietary behaviors might actually have been somewhat successful, even though there was only a small change in measured dietary behaviors and no change in the outcome of obesity prevalence. How might they support an argument that the campaign was a partial success? According to study by (Horton & Cole (2011), the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was increased by the government. This was a move to limit the number of people purchasing them or as least reduce the frequency of their purchase and it worked. Schools started monitoring the BMI of their students which was done constantly and their school diet changed as a result to focus on healthy food and snacks. Physical activity which had been neglected for art work and indoor games was reintroduced in most schools and serious efforts to make students participate in them followed. This was meant to make the children healthy and work out extra fat in their bodies. Research by (Koh, 2010) indicates further that the government gave incentives for people to open grocery stores which had healthy food accessible to encourage many people to shift from fast foods and takeaways. References Bertakis, K. et al. (1998). Physician practice styles and patient outcomes. Medical Care, 36(6): 879-891. Changs, et al. (2006).Patients’ Global Ratings of Their Health Care Are Not Associated with the Technical Quality of Their Care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 144: 665-672. Fullilove, R. & Fullilove, M. (2005, June). HIV/AIDS in the African American Community: The Legacy of Urban Abandonment. Harvard Journal of American Public Policy, 11: 33-41. Glanz, K. & Bishop, D. (2010). The Role of Behavioral Science Theory in Development and Implementation of Public Health Interventions. Annual Review of Public Health, 31: 399- 418. Gollust, S., Niederdeppe, J. & Barry, C. (2013, November). Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy. American Journal of Public Health, 103(11): E96-E102. Hall, J., Blanch-Hartigan, D., & Roter, D. (2011). Patients’ Satisfaction with Male versus Female Physicians. Medical Care, 49(7): 611-617. Horton, S. & Cole, S. (2011). Medical returns: Seeking health care in Mexico. Social Science & Medicine, 72: 1846-1852. Israel BA, Schulz AJ, Parker EA, Becker AB, Allen AJ, Guzman JR: Critical Issues in Developing and Following CBPR Principles. Pp. 48-66. In Minkler M and Wallerstein N (Eds.): Community Based Participatory Research for Health. San Francisco, Jossey- Bass, 2008. Jones, M. & Bayer, R. (2007). Paternalism and its discontents. American Journal of Public Health, 97(2): 208-217. Kellermann, A. & Rivara, F. (2012).Silencing the Science on Gun Research. Journal of American Medical Association, E1-E2. Koh, H. (2010, May). A 2020 Vision for Healthy People. A New England Journal of Medicine, 362 (18): 1653-1656. McKinlay, J., Trachtenberg, F., Marceau, L., Katz, J. & Fischer, M. (2014, April). Effects of Patient Medication Requests on Physician Prescribing Behavior. Medical Care, 52(4): 294-299. Minkler, M. & Wallerstein, N. (2008). Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: From Process to Outcomes. New Jersey: Josey-Bass. Scarpaci, J. (1988). Help-seeking Behavior, use and satisfaction among frequent primary care users in Santiago de Chile. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 29: 199-213. Schnittker, J., Pescosolido, B. & Croghan, T. (2005).Are African Americans Really Less Willing to Use Health Care? Social Problems, 52(2): 255-271. Springer, K. & Mouzon, D. (2011, April). “Macho Men” and Preventive Health Care: Implications for older men in different social classes. Journal of health and Social Behavior, XX(X): 1-16. Read More