Literature Review Section
The literature review seeks to support the proposed solution to the research problem. The proposed research question is: what is the role of knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes of the healthcare providers in reducing healthcare disparities? The only solution to decreasing healthcare disparities amongst the minorities is to improve the knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of the healthcare workers. Researchers such as Hammarlund et al. (2017), Marshall et al. (2017), and Terndrup et al. (2019) illustrate how well-informed healthcare workers uphold their knowledge, behavior, and attitude in reducing health disparities amongst all patients.
Educational knowledge and behavioral interventions improve the attitudes of resident physicians towards healthcare provision. Hammarlund et al. (2017) state that graduate medical training barely covers healthcare disparities. The physicians graduate and proceed to facilitate healthcare without adequate knowledge about the existing healthcare disparities. The study focused on the difference between resident practitioners with knowledge about health disparities and those without the knowledge. According to the findings, after a month of training about health disparities, the trainees showed positive behavior, and attitude and had more knowledge about how to reduce health differences. The conclusion is that healthcare providers need education about existing healthcare inequalities to offer equal services.
Medical students need to undergo cultural competency training in their undergraduate courses. Most U.S. medical schools require the institutions to include cultural competency education in their learning but only a few schools add the program. According to McElfish et al. (2017), medical schools need innovation programs that combine learning objectives with community trends. In their research, the authors engaged health professionals in such activities as educational seminars and community-based learning to expose them to the reality of healthcare discrepancies (McElfish et al., 2017). The study showed that the trained physicians found the need to change the state of healthcare.
Training residential physicians on how to deliver care to people with diverse cultures are significant. Marshall et al. (2017) provide that learning how to associate with patients from a different culture is crucial to delivering adequate care. The study concluded that training the physicians about the existing health gap amongst the minorities is not enough if they are not educated about how to associate with different cultures.
Assessing healthcare inequality knowledge is critical to reducing the gap, especially in groups with diverse cultures. According to Dupras et al. (2020), assessments of health disparities education are rarely conducted in health institutions. An assessment indicates the existing gaps in learning about the medical gap and solutions are provided. Learning about a health concept helps improve the providers’ knowledge, practice, and confidence (Cooper et al., 2017). A study showed that improving knowledge about dental care helps pediatrics offer better care to patients. The concept of the study is that medical professionals require training about healthcare discrepancies to know how to control the gap.
Conclusion
Physician training concerning healthcare disparities is crucial to reducing the continued health gap. Their training will not only benefit the minority groups but also special people like LGBTQ+ who also experience healthcare inequality. Cultural competency training is also significant in reducing the healthcare gap amongst various ethnic groups. Medical professionals also need to learn about the emerging community affairs in their programs to be impacted with knowledge of care. Attitude adjustment required knowledge and behavior interventions provided by training.
References
Cooper, D., Kim, J., Duderstadt, K., Stewart, R., Lin, B., & Alkon, A. (2017). Interprofessional oral health education improves knowledge, confidence, and practice for pediatric healthcare providers. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, 213-222.
Dupras, D. M., Wieland, M. L., Halvorsen, A. J., Maldonado, M., Willett, L. L., & Harris, L. (2020). Assessment of training in health disparities in US internal medicine residency programs. JAMA Network Open, 3(8), 1-9. Web.
Hammarlund, R., Hamer, D., Crapanzano, K., Bernard, R., Nzodom, C., James, C., & Calongne, L. (2017). Health care disparities knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in resident physicians. Journal of Patient-centered Research and Reviews, 4(4), 230.
Marshall, J. K., Cooper, L. A., Green, A. R., Bertram, A., Wright, L., Matusko, N., & Sisson, S. D. (2017). Residents’ attitude, knowledge, and perceived preparedness toward caring for patients from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Health Equity, 1(1), 43-49.
McElfish, P. A., Moore, R., Buron, B., Hudson, J., Long, C. R., Purvis, R. S., & Warmack, T. S. (2018). Integrating interprofessional education and cultural competency training to address health disparities. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 30(2), 213-222.