Personal Beliefs on Disparities in Nursing Care

Disparities in nursing care result from a lack of care within the nursing profession. Caring is central to the nursing profession, and when it is lacking, there are negative consequences that result in increased patient dissatisfaction, mortality rates, and reduced access to services by patients (Lake et al., 2018). When caring stops being central to the nursing profession, nursing stops being nursing. There are caring disparities based on the location of a hospital and the staff assigned to the hospital. These disparities stem from the inequality of our society where certain areas receive adequate funding and support from the government, and others are left alone. Nurses working in underfunded areas struggle to care for their patients and cannot offer them appropriate services. Discrimination occurs in nursing where certain patients are offered the best services, and others are denied. Due to discrimination, there are disparities in the care a patient receives and what others receive in the same care facility (Groves et al., 2021). Culture plays another significant role in nursing. Without being culturally informed, a nurse cannot offer services to different individuals. Culture will limit the services, and there might be some disparities in the care provided due to the disconnect between cultures.

Nursing care disparities produce avoidable suffering, discarded human resources, and lost productivity (Lake et al., 2018). They also deny the equal opportunity for health care. While some of the disparities might not be intentional on the nurses part, some are directly caused by nursing care. When nurses treat people differently, they are negatively impacting the health of the individuals, and it is due to their selfishness. Some nurses believe black people have a high tolerance to pain and will let them stay in plain for more extended periods than white folks (Estrada et al., 2021).

Location of Health Care Facility

The location of a health care facility determines the services and level of care offered to the patients. In underfunded areas, healthcare facilities struggle to offer appropriate care to their patients because there might be fewer nursing staff, not enough resources, and high patient numbers (Groves et al., 2021). Nurse are human beings, and when they are overwhelmed with their work, they will be reporting to work tired, which impacts their service delivery. Nursing care will deteriorate, and the patients will not receive the attention they need or would have received if they attended or visited a facility with adequate staffing numbers. The underfunded facilities will not have all the resources necessary to care for the patients, and nurses are forced to work with what is available.

In some cases, there will be no medications to offer the patients resulting in patients not receiving the care they need. Patient waiting times will be longer since fewer nurses and doctors can attend to the patients. Additionally, there are higher patient numbers in some areas due to a lack of healthcare facilities.

Compared to other well-funded or middle-class locations, these locations struggle to offer care resulting in nursing disparities. Nurses seem not to care, but the reality is that they care only that they have to work with what is available, work longer hours leading to burnout, and do not have the necessary resources to offer care to their patients. Sadly, these underfunded facilities are located in less affluent areas where the low-class citizens live. Nurses are unwilling to work in low-class...

…treatment since it does not consider their culture or go against them. Cultural competence should also respect the needs of patients whose religion does not allow blood transfusion. Therefore, there are different aspects of culture that nurses should have when offering care to patients. Without respect for the diverse cultures, nurses encounter when handling patients, they cannot provide competent nursing care, and some patients will be neglected. Nursing care will be focused on treatment, and compliance rates with treatment recommendations will decline.

Conclusion

Nursing care disparities occur due to systemic or lack of knowledge. Systemic causes limit the care offered to patients, like when a nurse has to care for more patients than they can manage. The nurse will be rushing to cater to each patients needs and will not have time to listen to the patients needs. Overworked nurses will lose focus and become sluggish or operate on autopilot, impacting the services they offer. Burnout can cause nurses to make errors, especially medication administration errors, leading to patient care deterioration. Racial discrimination has crept up in nursing care, and patients from specific backgrounds might struggle to receive care. Numerous factors can cause prejudice, and nurses who discriminate against patients are causing disparities in nursing care. The patients are treated differently, and they do not receive the same level of care as their counterparts. Cultural competence allows a nurse to understand and consider the patients beliefs, race, and values when offering care. However, without cultural competence, the nurse provides insensitive care that ignores the patients needs but considers the recommended treatment. Patients end up failing to follow the recommended treatment. We should improve on the services offered to patients by eliminating these disparities and ensuring…