Assessing the Problem: Healthcare Disparities on Pregnant Women from Minority Groups

Assessing the Problem: Healthcare Disparities on Pregnant Women from Minority Groups
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Assessing the Problem: Healthcare Disparities on Pregnant Women from Minority Groups
Explain how the patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
The population under focus is racially black and stays in public housing. Most of the women are single, and they do menial jobs to support their families. Most of them have at least two other children and at least one other family member they are living with. Their houses are cramped, and they live in constant fear of lacking food. Most of the mothers are beneficiaries of food stamps and food donated by local charities. Pregnant women in this community must overcome a lot of hurdles to carry through their pregnancy and raise their children. The quality of care available to them and the cost of it are the main issues they face.
Chalhoub and Rimar (2018) from the Center for American Progress indicate that "African American women are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth than non-Hispanic white women." The above serves as a reality to women from the African American race, which stem from structural and institutional problems that are pertinent to their lives. According to Chuck (2020), about 658 women died from pregnancy-associated complications. The figure above coincides with that provided by the CDC. The data paints a clear picture of how pregnant minority women have odds stacked against them. Chuck (2020) indicates that African American women die "2.5 times more often than white women." Such disparities continue to inflict danger on the lives of the minority pregnant women while robbing them of an opportunity to either live to see their children or raise healthy children.
Another sad issue that paints a darker picture of the issue is that "socioeconomic status, education, and other factors do not protect against this disparity" (Chalhoub and Rimar, 2018). In several studies that have been published, there is strong evidence that clinical trials are not well represented, and hence their findings are not generalizable to the entire population (Hamel, 2016). If studies into pregnancy-related issues do not include pregnant women from minority groups, the findings are skewed. Thus, even the more economically advantaged mothers still have a disadvantage when they need to access healthcare. Such issues continue to dampen the quality of care while also exposing pregnant women from minority groups to danger. Giving birth should not be a do-or-die moment for them, but the current healthcare system has worked hard to ensure it is so.
Aside from the above, the costs involved also appear to be high, even for Medicaid enrollees. If a family lives in public housing and is run by a single parent working menial jobs, healthcare costs will be unimaginable to them. They will try all ways possible to cut corners during and after the pregnancy, which puts the health of the mother and the child at risk. According to Ranji (2019), "Medicaid is the primary source of health coverage for low-income women, and a major financier of maternity care, covering more than four in ten births in the U.S." However, because of health disparities directed to pregnant women from the minority groups, the costs of Medicaid coverage for these women rises because of the many challenges they encounter. However, families are forced to consider prolonged care for their newly born children or their mothers because of the negligence resulting from deep racist issues.
Explain how state nursing boards' practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies can affect the problem's impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
State boards of nursing focus on several areas, with two key ones being education and practice. These areas affect the quality of care, patient safety, costs to the system and the individual. For example, when state boards design and approve curriculum, they use the evidence collected from research and what has proven to increase patient safety and improve quality of care. State boards may require nursing students to take courses in a specific area to ensure they are trained in that area before they are licensed to practice. For example, regarding the pregnant women from the minority groups, the State Boards can consider introducing certain curriculum adjustments that speak to the issue of bias and discrimination against these women. By ensuring that schools churn out nurses with the understanding of the problem at hand, State Boards would have helped alleviate the problem's impact. Ultimately, nurses would dispense care in ways that ensure better quality of care and patient safety for pregnant women from minority groups.
Through regulation of nursing practice, each state board dictates how nurses perform care. In some states, nurses have to undergo further training under a more experienced nurse's supervision to perform procedures, such as prescribing some medication. The qualification of the nurse to prescribe medication is different from state to state. Additionally, the state board also manages delegation to team members among other responsibilities according to what the board thinks is in the patient's best interest. All these policies are designed to improve patient safety, improve quality of care, and reduce treatment costs. However, the above negates or excludes pregnant women of color. As already indicated. State Boards have the power to influence nurses' practice. They can do this by ensuring that nurses are undergoing further training, especially on cultural competence and the discrimination problem facing pregnant women from minority groups. By influencing the nursing practice through training, State Boards can help ensure that nurses are better prepared to issue care while treating all patients equally. It is crucial to add that the training needs to be continuous to ensure that nurses are sensitized on the new and subtle ways discr...