Essay Sample on Unequal Healthcare Delivery: A Health Equity Policy for the US

Introduction

There has been an evident disparity in the delivery of healthcare in the United States, especially among ethnic and racial minority groups. The following Health Equity policy seeks to advocate for the provision of effective healthcare to all persons in the United States without discrimination. Thus, this policy intervention is expected to be adopted as it brings the needed changes in the United States healthcare sector.

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Background of the Problem

There exist various minority groups in the United States of America, which is a representative of about 30 percent of the Americans (Maurer & Claudia, 2012). These groups are experiencing discrimination and inequality with regard to healthcare provision. The inequality in healthcare delivery is attributed to various factors, which include their relatively low socioeconomic status when compared to the rest of the United States population. The discrimination to the minority groups is characterized by inadequate and substandard healthcare services as offered. According to a study by the National Centre of Statistics, the rate of mortality of Black Americans is higher when compared to the Native Americans (Osborn et al., 2011). For instance, the mortality rate of infants from African origin is twice that of Native Americans in the year 2007 (Dorsey et al., 2014). That is as a result of healthcare inequality and disparity as offered across the various racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States have been suffering from poor health due to a lack of proper healthcare delivery within their population. That is in contrast to other groups in the society who are accorded the best possible healthcare services. Moreover, health inequality is observed among individuals who are physically disabled when compared to people who are not suffering from any physical disabilities. There have been efforts put forward to reduce and combat the disparities evident in the delivery of healthcare, but still, total success is yet to be realized.

Importance of Health Equity in Nursing Practice

The policy of Health Equity is important in nursing practice as it enables the improvement of healthcare services delivery to everyone without any form of discrimination. I am interested in the well-being of all persons in the population since proper health is a basic need. The policy ensures the delivery of quality healthcare services is not only focused on the major groups in American society but everyone who needs care for their deteriorating health. Therefore, I would be satisfied with the entire nursing practice as healthcare services can be enjoyed by all.

Impact of the Health Equity Policy

The impact of the Health Equity policy upon successful implementation is expected to be felt at the national level of practice. However, healthcare inequality and disparity is observed in all levels of clinical practice as large areas across the United States is inhabited by minority groups. Therefore, as much as national level clinical practice provides a significant opportunity to tackle health inequality and disparities, the partnership from all levels of practice is important. Thus, the local and state levels of nursing practice, and also non-governmental organizations are important to be part of the Health Equity policy.

Impact on Healthcare and Influence on Nursing Practice

Currently, infants born within the minority group in the American population are expected to have a poorer health condition, hence a short lifespan. Whereas those babies born in the superior groups in the population will have a longer lifespan. The Health Equity policy is expected to address these differences in life expectancy by various ethnic and racial groups of people in the United States. That is through measuring both vertical and horizontal equity components, which form the basis of whether patients from diverse backgrounds receive the needed health care. Vertical and horizontal equity components are determined by the patient's need with their social factors. Moreover, the policy would influence nursing practice through the adoption of emerging techniques to combat disparity during healthcare delivery. That includes the application of interactive multimedia to evaluating the social variation during the decision-making process in clinical practice.

Implementation

The implementation of the Health Equity policy should be facilitated by the government through the adoption of diversity in nursing practice. Thus, the government will create massive multicultural competent pools for the management of ethnic and racial discrimination. That would be dependent on the funds of about 1 billion dollars made available by the Affordable Care Act (Wenzl & Mossialos, 2017). That will involve the recruitment of multicultural healthcare practitioners to diversify nursing practice.

As a nursing advocate, I may assist in the implementation of this Health Equity policy through designing interventions at the patient-clinician level of interaction. Hence, ensuring I provide quality service to all the patients without discriminating on their social backgrounds. Moreover, the focus should be on the improvement of quality in instances where an individual from certain minor ethnic and racial groups are not served adequately. Moreover, I would sensitize the patients to speak for their right to adequate and quality healthcare through engaging in partisan debates and providing testimony in courts when they are discriminated against.

References

Dorsey, R., Graham, G., Glied, S., Meyers, D., Clancy, C., & Koh, H. (2014). Implementing Health Reform: Improved Data Collection and the Monitoring of Health Disparities. Annual Review of Public Health, 35(1), 123-138. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182423

Maurer, F. A., & Claudia, S. M. (2012). Community/Public Health Nursing Practice (5th). Health for Families and Populations.

Osborn, D., Hanlon, C., Rosenthal, J., Hinkle, L. (2011). Reducing racial and ethnic disparities through health care reform: State experience.

Wenzl, M., & Mossialos, E. (2017). Achieving equity in health service commissioning. Policy Press. doi:10.1332/policy press/9781447330226.003.0012