Check out the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
Recently our dean asked our faculty to include education about disparities in healthcare in one of our introductory courses in our graduate nursing programs. And it didn't take long doing a simple Google search of disparities in healthcare to come up with some interesting articles addressing a variety of sources of disparity in healthcare that exist in our society and their influence on our country’s overall population health. This is a problem in our society and it influences a lot of our population, which is why we need to tackle the problem and possible solutions.
We know that healthcare disparities in terms of access to care, and quality of care are abundant and pervasive in the United States and are related to socioeconomic class, immigration status, institutionalized discrimination, and evolving acceptance of the transgender and gender-diverse communities. As anesthesia providers charged with providing patients with the highest quality anesthesia care, we are obligated to become more knowledgeable of these disparities in healthcare and strive to play an active role in addressing these pervasive systemic issues.
Here’s some of what we discuss in this episode:
- Disparities in rural areas and possible solutions.
- The health of minority groups declines over time and subsequent generations.
- The racial disparities that exist between and within the US states.
References
Reilly, M. (2021). Health Disparities and Access to Healthcare in Rural vs. Urban Areas. Theory in Action, (14) 2. 6-27.
Radley, D.C., Shah, A., Collins, S.R., Powe, N.R., Zephyrin, L.C. (2024) Advancing Racial Equity in U.S. Health Care. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/apr/advancing-racial-equity-us-health-care.
Bakhtiari, E. (2016) Unhealthy Trajectories: Race, Migration, and the Formation of Health Disparities in the United States. PhD Dissertation. Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. ProQuest Number: 10147023.
Butwick, A.J. et al. (2016) Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mode of Anesthesia Delivery. Anesthesia and Analgesia (122) 2. 472-479.
Mergler, B.D. et al. (2023). Racial and Ethnic Patient Care Disparities in Anesthesiology: History, Current State, and a Way Forward. Anesthesia and Analgesia. Special Article (XXX) 00. 1-12.
Wilkerson I. Caste. The Origins of Our Discontents. Random House; 2020.
Sanchez, K.J., et al. (2023). Perioperative Care of Transgender and Gender-Diverse Patients: A Biopsychosocial Approach. Anesthesia and Analgesia (137) 1. 234-246.
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To predict a person's health, we ask about the conditions in which they live. To understand a society, we look at how its members live and die.
- Garry & Terry
