Review the details of your assessment including the rubric. You will have the ability to submit the assessment once you submit your required pre-assessment and engage with your Faculty Subject Matter Expert (SME) in a substantive way about the competency.

Overview

For this Performance Task Assessment, you will listen to a bias scenario to consider bias, SDOH, and quality care. After listening and reflecting, you will complete the Bias Scenario handout.

Instructions

To complete this Assessment, do the following:

• Be sure to adhere to the indicated assignment length.
• Download the Bias Scenario Handout.

Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the SME will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

All submissions must follow the conventions of scholarly writing. Properly formatted APA citations and references must be provided where appropriate. Submissions that do not meet these expectations will be returned without scoring.

This Assessment requires submission of one file, a completed XA3003 Bias Scenario. Save this file as XA3003_firstinitial_lastname (for example, XA3003_J_Smith).

Listen to the audio scenarios, and respond to the four questions in the Bias Scenario handout.

Please contact Assignment Samurai for help with XA3003: Summative Assessment or any other assignment.

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SOLUTION to XA3003: Summative Assessment.

Bias Scenario

In any vocation and especially in the nursing discipline, prejudices, and biases should not be taken lightly as they have a massive impact on patient treatment, decisions, and other dynamics in a specialty practice. Thus, to have a clear view of bias, this paper analyses a conversation between nurses in a break room identifying the cases of bias and prejudice in their statements. In addition, it examines how these biases affect social determinants of health, and quality care and also outlines recommendations for cultivating a less biased workplace culture.

Statements that Demonstrate Bias or Prejudice

In the breakroom conversation, multiple statements reflect bias. First, the statement by the female speaker, “Admin is now on a kick to try and hire more minorities to make a more diverse work environment,” directs attacks toward ethnic minorities, suggesting that equal opportunity measures are unneeded or inconvenient. Second, the comment by the male speaker, “Yeah, I saw her, but she does not look gay. I mean, she looks feminine to me with her pink shoes. Maybe her wife is the man,” demonstrates prejudices in relation to the LGBTQ+ population by employing stereotype regarding how people of particular sexual orientations should groom themselves. Lastly, is the comment by the male speaker, “So many do not speak English as a first language. And if they do, I cannot understand it,” evokes discrimination towards non-native English speakers, aiming at those whose native language is other than English and reinforcing the stereotype that these people are hard to comprehend. Clearly, bias is embedded in these statements as they categorizes people based on their sexual orientation, ethnicity, and language using stereotypical adjectives which might incline them towards discrimination whenever they are practicing their professions.

An Instance of Subtle Bias

An example of a subtle form of prejudice in the discussion is a female speaker’s words, “I have been so impressed, though, with our new Black OR manager. She is very articulate and seems to be fitting in well.” Although this is meant to be complimentary it only serves to perpetuate the stereotype that black people are less eloquent or less likely to succeed which is far from the truth. These implicit attitudes are particularly problematic as they can adversely affect one’s behavior towards members of the undeserved groups either by setting these low expectations, overlooking their cultural requirements or, by completely disregarding them (Lee & Hastie, 2024). When such assumptions are left unchecked, they shape workplace cultures that support perceptions of stereotyped groups as inevitably problematic rather than unique individuals with complex capabilities and narratives. These prejudices gradually diminish the self-esteem and prospects of the affected groups and result in inequity in promotion and the quality of service provided.

Impact of Bias on Social Determinants of Health and Quality Care

Prejudices by nurses can directly influence the aspects of social determinants of health and quality of care. For instance, prejudice against the homosexuals, people of color, and those who speak other languages rather than English may lead to discrimination manifested by unfair treatment or lack of clear communication resulting in poorer health outcomes for these groups. For example, a nurse who holds prejudices against LGBTQ+ individuals might consciously or unconsciously provide less compassionate care, thus leading to a decrease in the willingness of the patient to seek care or share important health information. Further, prejudice against those who do not speak English fluently may lead to misunderstandings that affect patient well-being and treatment effectiveness. Marcelin et al. (2019) underscore that bias, even in subtle forms, can make people feel unwelcome or cause their needs to be disregarded due to perceptions about their sexuality and other attributes rather than being judged on individual character or medical needs alone. This undermines ethics of providing equitable, compassionate care to all. As such scholars such as Carter et al. (2020) postulate that to reduce the risk of further entrenching social disadvantage in healthcare and inequality, it is necessary to draw attention to prejudice sensitively, and encourage cultural diversity to minimize prejudice’s impact.

How I would respond to at least one of the biased statements

If I were present during this conversation, I would address the statement, “She does not look gay. I mean, she looks feminine to me with her pink shoes,” by calmly pointing out that sexual orientation cannot be determined by appearance. I would explain that such assumptions can be harmful and create an unwelcoming environment for LGBTQ+ individuals. In order to address bias in a constructive manner, I would first start the discussion that encourages and supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, thus making my colleagues realize the role they play in creating biased behaviors. Second, I would call for scheduling of some training on cultural competence for all staff as a way of making sure all the staff members are in a position to effectively and appropriately engage the diverse populations (Carter et al., 2020). Third, I would implement peer support group to exchange experiences and solutions to reduce prejudices and organizational climate improvement. The above strategies would therefore help in developing a conducive environment that fully supports diversity as well as inclusion in nursing practice.

Conclusion

Understanding bias in nursing is pertinent since it affects the equitable provision of quality health care. As such,  reduction of prejudice attitudes alongside with raising awareness and prevention of prejudiced behaviors in healthcare personnel, will improve the climate and contribute to better patient outcomes and cultural sensitivity.

References

Carter, E. R., Onyeador, I. N., & Lewis Jr, N. A. (2020). Developing & delivering effective anti-bias training: Challenges & recommendations. Behavioral Science & Policy, 6(1), 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1177/237946152000600106

Lee, A., & Hastie, M. (2024). Recognising and managing bias and prejudice in healthcare. BJA Education, 24(7), 245-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjae.2024.03.006

Marcelin, J. R., Siraj, D. S., Victor, R., Kotadia, S., & Maldonado, Y. A. (2019). The impact of unconscious bias in healthcare: how to recognize and mitigate it. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 220(Supplement_2), S62-S73. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz214

Walden University, LLC. (2023). Bias scenario audio clips [Audio]. Walden University Brightspace. https://mytempo.instructure.com