St Thomas University Week 7 Nursing Influencing Health Policy Discussion
Description
You should respond to your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.
Jenny Chavez
Closing the Health Care Disparities Gap in the LGBTQ Community
According to Mason et al., (2016), the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) community or sexual and gender minorities have experienced issues with healthcare access across the board that has led to physical and mental issues disparities. Even the nursing profession, though leaders in this area, have fell short in their advocacy efforts to support these groups. The HIV/AIDS epidemics in the 1980s, increased this healthcare gap for this population, however, it also served to increased awareness of this communities as more friends, and family members became supportive of these groups. Since them, until recent years, progress has been made. For example: almost 40 states in the nation had legalized same-sex marriage by 2015; prohibitions of federal benefits for same-sex couples have been lifted as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. (p.1252 1253).
As mentioned above, the nursing profession have taken some actions to help this community. From the HIV/AIDS crisis in our country, nurses responded positively in providing care to the ills. Also nursing organizations at the state and national levels advocated against discrimination of these population; nonetheless, the profession still has a challenge in closing the healthcare disparities gap for the (LGBTQ) community in clinical practice, nursing education programs or health policies. Some of the actions that are important to address these disparities are related to antidiscrimination policies; organizations including the healthcare industry should be proactive in this area. For example: The Joint Commission as of July 1, 2011 required that hospitals prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Also, whether is a healthcare organization, nursing education or student associations, making publicly position statements on the LGTBQ community rights can help address these disparities at the national and state level. (Mason et al., 2016, p. 1254).
On the local or personal level, nurses must be more aware of their personal believes might interact with the care they provide to this population; a proper self-assessment on culturally competent, stereotyping, safe, and quality care for LGTBQ must be done to effectively intervene. Health care organization should create policies that effectively respect the rights and dignity of the LGTBQ patients and their families. Applicants to employment or employees should not be discriminated based on gender identity. Furthermore, employers should provide training to staff and educating providers about appropriate and sensitive care to this population (Mason et al., 2016, p. 1256).
Regarding this important topic that affect our nation, and some of the actions that must be taken to close the health disparity gap for this community, in a recent webinar hosted by The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation, on Addressing Health Disparities in the LGBTQ+ Community, Dr. Jennifer Potter, who is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and has vast clinical and research experience in advancing the health of this population, expressed the following: Definitely changing this state of affairs is going to require collaborative implementation efforts at individual, interpersonal organizational, community policy, and cultural levels
it take people from federal programs, state health departments, health plans, universities, medical centers community clinics, schools, health professionals caring for sexual and gender minority individuals in all regions of the country and across the lifespan, as well as providers and staff who are focused on improving physical, mental, and behavioral health. Together, we can collectively move the needle (NIHCM, 2020).
References
Mason, D., Gardner, B., Outlaw, H. and OGrady, T., 2016. Policy and Politics: In Nursing And Health Care. 7th ed. Saunders
National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, (2020, October 23). Addressing Health Disparities in the LGBTQ Community. Webinar. Retrieved from https://nihcm.org/publications/addressing-health-d
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