Self-Assessment of Understanding the Cultural Diversity Issues in Healthcare
To what extent do my beliefs, prejudices or biases influence my thinking in terms of providing service in my profession? Include several examples.
I think in order to answer this question completely and for the reader to understand more about me, I need to give you a little history of my background. I grew up in a small town outside of La Crosse, WI with a population of about 6,500 people. When I was young the town was predominantly white with very few Blacks, Hispanics or Mexicans. My religion was Lutheran and my parents were both educators at small schools. My father was a guidance counselor at a neighboring school, so my brother and I had a lot of sit down conversations when we did something wrong versus getting spanked or being yelled at. My mother was the school librarian where my brother and I attended grade school and junior high. It was hard to do anything wrong at school because we knew that our mom would find out immediately and then we would be in more trouble.
In all honesty, my brother and I were good kids. Sure we had our moments, but we grew up in a loving home and we were very close to our parents. We never wanted to let our mom and dad down, and I pray that my two boys feel the same way. I have always said that you should have fear in your parents and fear in your job. The fear should be to not let your parents down or your employer. If you work hard and do the right thing, you should be fine in anything you do.
As my brother and I got older, the town got bigger as well as the population. The school was still predominantly white, but there were more minorities every year. My parents always taught my brother and I not to judge people by the color of their skin or if they acted differently and we stayed true to that. I remember in junior high, the kids that I hung around with were picking on a mentally challenged kid and I had a really hard time with that. I remember telling one of my friends how that was wrong and he said "we are just kidding around, don't be so serious." It was hard to associate myself with that group when that sort of thing was happening. I felt that if I didn't join in that they might turn things and start making fun of me. In the end, I did the right thing and continued to say that it wasn't right and if they did make fun of him I would disassociate myself from the group. They did stop making fun of that kid and I believe that was my first real diversity issue that I ran into as a teenager.
I graduated from high school in 1993 and moved to Eau Claire, WI and then La Crosse to go to college. I learned a lot and met a lot of friends along the way. When I transferred from Eau Claire to La Crosse I was to go into Radiography. I started out wanting to be an Occupational Therapist, but decided that X-ray was more my suit. I knew that I liked to help people and that I wanted to make a difference in people's lives. I wanted to do something that was meaningful to me as well.
I graduated from La Crosse in 1996 with my Associate's degree in Radiography and moved to the city of Milwaukee. Things were very different. The city was huge compared to La Crosse or Eau Claire. The city was culturally diverse. There were parts of the city that housed specific ethnic groups and I really liked it. I never felt scared or didn't feel like I couldn't approach someone due to their color. In the next two years I worked in Boston, Massachusetts; Memphis, Tennessee; Tupelo, Mississippi; and Kansas City, Missouri for my job. I learned a lot about culture and had many life experiences that made me who I am today. I believe without those experience, I would have looked at society differently.
Now that you have some background on me, you will understand my answers better.
My beliefs, prejudices or biases influence my thinking in providing service in Healthcare every single day.
I feel that because of my background I am neutral to a lot of scenarios. I remember about five years ago we had a transgender patient that came in to one of my clinics and it was a man that had transformed into a woman. The two people that were working that day where very nervous to talk with the patient because they didn't know how to address the patient. They asked me "should I call her by her female name or male name?" They didn't want to offend the patient and they wanted me to deal with it. I was glad to talk with this patient and I coached my staff through it. I went up and asked for the female name. She came up to me and I brought her back to the changing room. I told the patient that I did not want to offend her in any way, but I wanted to make sure that we were calling her by the correct name. She said that she preferred the female name as well. She next asked if she could go to the restroom and I let her know that the men's bathroom was around the corner and the female bathroom was down the hall. She thanked me and I then talked to my staff. I explained that we just needed to be understanding and ask the patient what they felt was the most appropriate name, restroom, etc. Some of the staff giggled because this gentleman was in a dress. I kindly reminded them why they went into healthcare. I said "we need to treat everyone equal no matter what the situation is." " I understand this is hard for some of you, but this is our patient." "We need to give this patient the same care that we give to all of our patients." "No more and no less." They knew how I felt because they know the type of person I am, and they understood. I try not to judge people due to my past experiences and knowing what it feels like. I had to make sure that in my position I needed to set a clear example.
In a prior assessment I talked about what I have done with the Interpreter Services at UW Health to try and get more languages with our literature along with providing more services. 1 My beliefs are that we should have equality among all of our patients. Why should someone go through a different experience with one of their exams solely based on the difference of language. I have a good rapport with the Chief Diversity Officer and we are working together to have all literature for a majority of languages for the exams in Medical Imaging. We are also working on an MRI video that explains "What to Expect for Your MRI." This will also be converted into Spanish and potentially other languages.
As a management team we just budgeted last year for more wheelchairs for our patients. We did this because we were getting more bariatric patients and patients that are having a hard time walking. We also wanted to reduce the fall risk at our clinics. Some of this equipment was expensive, but once again we wanted to make sure that our patients have a good experience at our clinics. This has been helpful to our patients and it has reflected on our surveys. My belief of wanting to help people and having equality goes into play once again with this scenario.
The one bias that I would like to use as an example is how I believe that all of the Medical Imaging staff should be certified in their modality. Some modalities are mandated by a governing body that they have certification in order to work in their profession. Some of the modalities currently do not. The UW Ambulatory management team made a conscious decision about four years ago that all of our staff should be certified because we were trying to receive the Diagnostic Center of Excellence certification. We implemented this and currently all of the ambulatory staff is certified. Now with the integration of all the clinics and hospitals within UW Health, all employees are required to have their boards taken and must be certified within the next two years. This shows that you are a master of your craft and it will only make you a better imager giving better patient care.
1) UW Health. Interpreter Services. https://uconnect.wisc.edu/depts/uwhealth/interpreter-services/. Accessed June 20th, 2018
I think in order to answer this question completely and for the reader to understand more about me, I need to give you a little history of my background. I grew up in a small town outside of La Crosse, WI with a population of about 6,500 people. When I was young the town was predominantly white with very few Blacks, Hispanics or Mexicans. My religion was Lutheran and my parents were both educators at small schools. My father was a guidance counselor at a neighboring school, so my brother and I had a lot of sit down conversations when we did something wrong versus getting spanked or being yelled at. My mother was the school librarian where my brother and I attended grade school and junior high. It was hard to do anything wrong at school because we knew that our mom would find out immediately and then we would be in more trouble.
In all honesty, my brother and I were good kids. Sure we had our moments, but we grew up in a loving home and we were very close to our parents. We never wanted to let our mom and dad down, and I pray that my two boys feel the same way. I have always said that you should have fear in your parents and fear in your job. The fear should be to not let your parents down or your employer. If you work hard and do the right thing, you should be fine in anything you do.
As my brother and I got older, the town got bigger as well as the population. The school was still predominantly white, but there were more minorities every year. My parents always taught my brother and I not to judge people by the color of their skin or if they acted differently and we stayed true to that. I remember in junior high, the kids that I hung around with were picking on a mentally challenged kid and I had a really hard time with that. I remember telling one of my friends how that was wrong and he said "we are just kidding around, don't be so serious." It was hard to associate myself with that group when that sort of thing was happening. I felt that if I didn't join in that they might turn things and start making fun of me. In the end, I did the right thing and continued to say that it wasn't right and if they did make fun of him I would disassociate myself from the group. They did stop making fun of that kid and I believe that was my first real diversity issue that I ran into as a teenager.
I graduated from high school in 1993 and moved to Eau Claire, WI and then La Crosse to go to college. I learned a lot and met a lot of friends along the way. When I transferred from Eau Claire to La Crosse I was to go into Radiography. I started out wanting to be an Occupational Therapist, but decided that X-ray was more my suit. I knew that I liked to help people and that I wanted to make a difference in people's lives. I wanted to do something that was meaningful to me as well.
I graduated from La Crosse in 1996 with my Associate's degree in Radiography and moved to the city of Milwaukee. Things were very different. The city was huge compared to La Crosse or Eau Claire. The city was culturally diverse. There were parts of the city that housed specific ethnic groups and I really liked it. I never felt scared or didn't feel like I couldn't approach someone due to their color. In the next two years I worked in Boston, Massachusetts; Memphis, Tennessee; Tupelo, Mississippi; and Kansas City, Missouri for my job. I learned a lot about culture and had many life experiences that made me who I am today. I believe without those experience, I would have looked at society differently.
Now that you have some background on me, you will understand my answers better.
My beliefs, prejudices or biases influence my thinking in providing service in Healthcare every single day.
I feel that because of my background I am neutral to a lot of scenarios. I remember about five years ago we had a transgender patient that came in to one of my clinics and it was a man that had transformed into a woman. The two people that were working that day where very nervous to talk with the patient because they didn't know how to address the patient. They asked me "should I call her by her female name or male name?" They didn't want to offend the patient and they wanted me to deal with it. I was glad to talk with this patient and I coached my staff through it. I went up and asked for the female name. She came up to me and I brought her back to the changing room. I told the patient that I did not want to offend her in any way, but I wanted to make sure that we were calling her by the correct name. She said that she preferred the female name as well. She next asked if she could go to the restroom and I let her know that the men's bathroom was around the corner and the female bathroom was down the hall. She thanked me and I then talked to my staff. I explained that we just needed to be understanding and ask the patient what they felt was the most appropriate name, restroom, etc. Some of the staff giggled because this gentleman was in a dress. I kindly reminded them why they went into healthcare. I said "we need to treat everyone equal no matter what the situation is." " I understand this is hard for some of you, but this is our patient." "We need to give this patient the same care that we give to all of our patients." "No more and no less." They knew how I felt because they know the type of person I am, and they understood. I try not to judge people due to my past experiences and knowing what it feels like. I had to make sure that in my position I needed to set a clear example.
In a prior assessment I talked about what I have done with the Interpreter Services at UW Health to try and get more languages with our literature along with providing more services. 1 My beliefs are that we should have equality among all of our patients. Why should someone go through a different experience with one of their exams solely based on the difference of language. I have a good rapport with the Chief Diversity Officer and we are working together to have all literature for a majority of languages for the exams in Medical Imaging. We are also working on an MRI video that explains "What to Expect for Your MRI." This will also be converted into Spanish and potentially other languages.
As a management team we just budgeted last year for more wheelchairs for our patients. We did this because we were getting more bariatric patients and patients that are having a hard time walking. We also wanted to reduce the fall risk at our clinics. Some of this equipment was expensive, but once again we wanted to make sure that our patients have a good experience at our clinics. This has been helpful to our patients and it has reflected on our surveys. My belief of wanting to help people and having equality goes into play once again with this scenario.
The one bias that I would like to use as an example is how I believe that all of the Medical Imaging staff should be certified in their modality. Some modalities are mandated by a governing body that they have certification in order to work in their profession. Some of the modalities currently do not. The UW Ambulatory management team made a conscious decision about four years ago that all of our staff should be certified because we were trying to receive the Diagnostic Center of Excellence certification. We implemented this and currently all of the ambulatory staff is certified. Now with the integration of all the clinics and hospitals within UW Health, all employees are required to have their boards taken and must be certified within the next two years. This shows that you are a master of your craft and it will only make you a better imager giving better patient care.
1) UW Health. Interpreter Services. https://uconnect.wisc.edu/depts/uwhealth/interpreter-services/. Accessed June 20th, 2018
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