1. Clearly define the problem to be solved or identify symptoms that suggest an underlying problem.
The problem at hand in this situation is that of stereotyping at the healthcare institution. Stereotyping patients may have a negative impact upon the patient’s overall health. Doctor’s for instance, may not take the grievances of female patients as seriously as male patients. Moreover, doctors may have a different attitude towards patient’s belonging to an ethnic background. For instance; sick people of the Afro-Caribbean group areconsidered as having a laid back attitude by the doctors. Therefore, doctors may have varying attitudes with patients depending on their affiliation with a particular demography of society (Bernheim, Ross, Krumbolz, Bradley, 2008).
2. Who are the stakeholders in this situation and how are they involved or impacted by this problem?
The particular stakeholders of this problem are; doctors, patients, families of patients, and the management of healthcare institutions. Doctors are the one who would be the cause of the problem. It would be their attitude towards the patient’s that will determine whether there is an issue of stereotyping or not. The families of the patients would be emotionally impacted if their family members are not given the proper treatment to improve their health. The management of the health care institutions would be blamed by patients and their families if the patients do not get fair treatment by the doctors of that particular hospital.
3. What alternatives solutions should be considered in solving this problem? How did you arrive at these alternatives?
Doctors should be given training in individuation (Burgees, Ryn, Dovidio, Saha, 2007). This would help them to recognize the individual differences amongst patients belonging to groups apart from theirs. It would be an effort shown by management towards reducing and eventually, eliminating stereotypes. Doctors should be in more direct contact with members belonging from ethnic groups to reduce their biases. This direct contact would allow the doctor to overcome the anxiety they may have towards this particular group. Enhancement of emotional regulation skills would assist the doctors in portraying sensitivity towards their patients regardless of the socioeconomic status. Along with this, enhancing understanding of the psychological basis of bias would be a useful technique to apply on doctors.
As a result of societal values, it is not uncommon for stereotypes to be present amongst individuals. These have been formed over time, and it is not easy to reduce these instantly. Therefore, the management of a hospital needs to realize this and then work towards providing training and workshops to instill this new set of values amongst its doctors.
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative? Quantify where possible.
Direct contact with dissimilar patients would allow the physicians or doctors to eliminate any negative feelings they may have towards these patients. However, it could have the opposite effect and the doctors feelings may be reinforced negatively. The doctor may show signs of anxiety while dealing with these patients, and this would have a negative impact upon the doctor and the health care institution. Enhancing emotional regulatory skills may not be present in every individual’s personality. Some people lack this trait; hence, are unable to give value to other people’s feelings. As the doctors would now be actively conscious while dealing with different patients this would bring out the problem of bias. Psychologists and psychiatrists should hold workshops and seminars for doctors. In these seminars, they would talk about the psychological basis for stereotyping. Doctors may best understand those from their own field or profession; therefore, psychologists and psychiatrists would be a suitable choice in helping alleviate the problem.
5. Indicate, which alternative you would recommend, and why.
I would recommend the selection of the last mentioned alternative. This alternative of getting psychologist and psychiatrists to help over-come the mental blockage against certain groups may be best able to communicate with doctors. Doctors communicating with those of the same field may help provide a better understanding and clearing the misconceptions.
6. Indicate the potential risks if this recommendation turns out to be wrong.
Workshops and seminars are costly. Therefore, the hospital may have to experience high-costs in organizing these workshops. If the recommendation turns out to be wrong, there would be wastage of resources. Doctors may not take any future steps of the management in eliminating a certain problem seriously. Therefore, it will also have a negative impact upon the image of the management.
7. How do you expect each of the stakeholders to react to your recommendation?
Physicians may be willing to attend these workshops as stereotyping is a major issue in today’s world. Along with this, with the increasing awareness of stereotyping in all sectors of business doctors may also want to overcome this weakness in their personality. Patients would be more willing to consult doctors who do not judge them or discriminate them because of their socioeconomic position. The management of a hospital will benefit in terms of goodwill and profits if they have a team of doctors who are fair in their treatment of patients.
References
Bradley, E. H., Bernheim, S. M., Ross, J. S., & Krumholz, H. M. (2008). Infl uence of Patients’ Socioeconomic Status on Clinical Management Decisions: A Qualitative Study. Ann Fam Med, 6(1), 53-59.
Burgess, D., Ryn, M. v., Dovidio, J., & Saha, S. (2007). Reducing Racial Bias Among Health Care Providers: Lessons from Social-Cognitive Psychology. J Gen Intern Med, 22(6), 882-887.
