1 A Cure for Gender Bias in Healthcare? – Jamie Andrews
Jamie is a first year student from Fountain City, Indiana. Jamie’s paper was written as a final project in Argumentative Writing (W270). Jamie’s professor Kelly Blewett said, “I want to celebrate Jamie’s commitment to excellence, demonstrated through careful and thorough work on her essay all fall. She chose a timely and significant topic, and skillfully wove together primary and secondary research to argue persuasively that the medical field needs to take concrete steps to decrease gender bias.”
A Cure for Gender Bias in Healthcare?
One hundred and fifty-six million females are in the United States, with a high number that may be experiencing substandard healthcare treatment according to the United States Census Bureau (as cited in Alspach, 2017, p. 15). Gender bias is something that is seen very prominently in many fields throughout the country. Though it is not the most common form of bias, many people still abide by it due to their implicit beliefs. Healthcare fields use it in many ways, despite their needs for bringing equality to the patients. Gender bias has ways that allows for a form of interruption that could ultimately help resolve some of the cases with it, not just in healthcare fields, but in other fields as well. Many may not see eye to eye with these forms of interruptions, but for the good of both genders, it could be helpful and beneficial for creating equality with the female gender in the long run.
By interrupting this gender bias, more equality will be seen for both genders. It will also allow for other possible fixes that deal with gender in other fields. This interruption is needed so that women get the same types of treatment that men get. It is an issue that needs to be resolved. Gender bias is seen greatly in healthcare fields, which is why it could be systematically interrupted in ways such as having a change in how employees are trained to interact and diagnose their patients, as well as checklists being incorporated into the basic process that doctors/physicians undergo with their patients.
People who identify as female have faced discrimination and bias for centuries. This being said, it is seen as “vicious” cycles to women’s health that needs to be worked on so that the bias and unequalness is overcome (Nimura, 2021, para. 4). One of the creators of the nurse preceptorship, JoAnn Alspach, found that less than 40% of women were admitted to ICU when they needed it, compared to the 60% of men that were admitted (2017, p. 11). The 20% difference between the men and women admittance rate into ICU is one example of where gender bias is presented vividly, but not all cases are. Alspach also found that 77% of men are given cholesterol medication, whereas only 47% of women are given the same types of medication (2017, p. 11). Though all may not need the medicine, there is still a high difference between the men that are given it and seen as needing it compared to the women. Examples like the ones given show how serious the gap can be between men and women being treated for the same types of issues, which also shows the seriousness of this specific type of gender bias.
These biases can be present whether it is intentional or unintentional, which is why there needs to be awareness brought to it. If people are not aware of the treatment they may be subject to due to their gender, then they will not know whether they get the treatment they are actually needing. Doctors, physicians, nurse practitioners, certified nursing assistants, etc. can all show gender bias in some form when caring for the patients they are treating. If there was an interruption to the bias, then these patients would not have to worry about whether they need to get several opinions on a matter, or if they are coming off as being overly dramatic or closed off like the genders are typically perceived and stereotyped as. If the biases are intentional, then other workers could step in so that the patient gets the correct treatment, even if they are just going from a hunch. For example, Morgan Stamper, a Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Reid Health, witnessed one of her male colleagues turn away a patient from being treated because she was “likely being overdramatic.” Stamper stepped in and asked the colleague to at least do CMP and CBC tests so that she could know for sure that there were no underlying conditions that would be missed, since no tests were being done. Due to her stepping in, the woman being treated was able to realize she was experiencing appendicitis, which would not have been treated if Stamper had not stepped in and stopped the male colleague from allowing bias to impact his judgment.
By interrupting the gender bias that can be seen in healthcare fields, others could see it as a beginning of change. This could potentially lead to helping stop gender bias in other forms, such as the notable gender bias that is in the acting industry, political industry, and business industries (Nordell, 2017, para. 6). Fixing one form of bias would bring attention and awareness to the other forms, which is the first step to interrupting the bias: acknowledging it (Alspach, 2017, p. 15). If the acknowledgement is there, then people are aware that something is not correct, and with something as big as healthcare and treating patients so they become healthy and survive, you would think people would want it all to be fair and equal so that everyone gets the same chance at survival and health.
Women in the United States comprise of a total of 50.8% of the people who claim to have substandard healthcare treatment, which could lead to accidental deaths and other issues that one may not suspect to occur (Alspcah, 2017, p. 1). Gender bias not being present in healthcare fields could lead to less accidental deaths, which is shown above as being a higher percentage than one might think, less people having issues due to not getting the correct treatment or medication, as well as lead to there being a breakthrough in how women get treated compared to men in the fields that matter greatly to one’s existence (Alspach, 2017, p. 1). Fixing this gender bias could be life altering to female patients, quite literally. Fifty percent of substandard health for women means that over half of the women being treated for anything in a healthcare facility are getting below the normal standard of treatment as a result of the bias that is presented. If over half of the women who are being treated are having substandard treatment, what does that say about the people giving the treatment? Are they educated on how to treat their clients respectfully? Or do they know that not all people of the same gender are the same? There are many questions that could come to mind when hearing this statement, but not many of those questions can be answered without the bias being interrupted enough so that people can acknowledge how badly it is affecting the healthcare system that is thought to be so great.
“[S]exes have differences” is a very commonly known thing but is one mindset that some have specifically for this argument, like Thomas Jefferson University Online (2019, para. 4). This position likes to argue that bias in healthcare based entirely on gender is needed since male and female anatomy is different. Having a bias could be beneficial in some scenarios, but it also invites the bias to be present at all times which could lead male officials in the healthcare fields to go into it with the mindset that females are overly dramatic, or vice versa. Not giving the same treatment on the basis of sex would allow healthcare facilities to turn people away if they feel the need, based on stereotypes, which would allow for people to keep their values and views which comes with the first amendment, and allow for the facilities to do things how they want. Having bias present would be the key to staying within the social constructs that have been built within the previous centuries.
Even if the people working on patients, such as doctors, physicians, CNA’s, etc. were not aware that they were using gender bias, that does not mean that they are not using it. This could cause harmful effects without anyone realizing it. What goes on behind a closed door in a doctor’s office means nobody could be there to stop the bias if it was being used unintentionally, which is why when the doors are closed like that, something needs to be in place to prevent the bias from occurring. This something could be checklists, which has proven to be beneficial for this exact reason by Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Checklists are one way that can help interrupt gender bias. Jessica Nordell, author of “The End of Bias: A Beginning” and writer of the New York Times, came across how Johns Hopkins Hospital “…didn’t expect to discover systematic gender bias…” as the hospital was experimenting with a checklist. The results of the checklist showed that many women had experienced at least one form of gender bias when it came to blood pressure and blood clots (2017, para. 1). The blood clot and blood pressure death rate is so high that it is the cause of more deaths than “… breast cancer, AIDS, and car crashes combined [per year] …” (Nordell, 2017, para. 3). Though the “systematic gender bias” was not expected, that does not mean that others in the facility, or patients, had not noticed that it was there previously. Dr. Haut, doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, came to this realization and knew something had to be done because of it, which is why he helped bring the checklist to becoming a mandatory part of their procedure. This was a big step in bringing awareness to gender bias and created a standard that many other hospitals also investigated, and some began as well (Alspach, 2017, p. 14).
Another way that hospitals and other healthcare facilities can help prevent gender bias from occurring within their walls is by training people to leave their bias and views on gender at home. Instead, they need to focus on helping the patient dealing with issues individually. The training could inform the doctors or physicians of how both genders present pain and pain perception, which could allow them to look into how the patients’ needs to be treated based on their gender, without bringing in bias that could prevent them from being treated at all (Wesolowicz et al., 2018, p. 1126). Education on how to prevent oneself from using bias in such an important and critical environment could be one of the most important stoppers of this bias (Wesolowicz et al., 2018, p. 1126). Education is important in keeping past mistakes from occurring again, which is why with education and experience, it could help prevent these types of gender bias from occurring in such vital places.
Doing something as simple as even bringing the doctors and physicians attention to the possibility that they could be using gender bias is subject to help preventing it (Chapman et al., 2013, p. 1508). Chapman et al., medical specialists and founders of the Women’s of Center Health Research, talk about how the biggest way of interrupting gender bias, based on the study they conducted, is to have the physicians be aware of “deliberately practic[ing] perspective-taking and individuation” of the patients so that they are not focused on the stereotypes of the gender as a whole, but rather the person sitting in front of them and the difficulties that they are having (2013, p. 1508).
Gender bias is a very big thing that is seen all over the world and is widely hated by all who support equality. Though there are ways that could systematically interrupt gender bias all around, interrupting the gender bias that is present in healthcare fields is majorly important in the time of the current pandemic. Finding a fix and interrupting all that is possible with the knowledge of it that is known could help give out the best treatment to all, bring awareness to the other forms of gender bias that are present around the world, get rid of many accidental deaths, and help create a world that is craved to be lived in. Gender bias may not be something that can be interrupted overnight but knowing of ways that could help with the interrupting such as having checklists or better training for the employees that could train them to leave their views and beliefs out of their work and at home would allow this interruption to happen smoothly. It would not happen overnight, but over time it would create a better environment for people to trust and confide in confidently. Systematically interrupting gender bias should be something that people fight for all over, not just for the healthcare fields, but for all other fields that glorify it in ways that some may not begin to realize.
References
Alspach, J. A. G. (2017). Because women’s lives matter, we need to eliminate gender bias. Critical Care Nurse, 37(2), 10–18. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2017326
Chapman, E. N., Kaatz, A., & Carnes, M. (2013). Physicians and implicit bias: How doctors may unwittingly perpetuate health care disparities. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 28(11), 1504–1510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-013-2441-1
Nimura, J. P. (2021, June 8). Why ‘unwell women’ have gone misdiagnosed for centuries. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/books/review/unwell-women-elinor-cleghorn.html
Nordell, J. (2017, January 11). A fix for gender bias in health care? Check. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/opinion/a-fix-for-gender-bias-in-health-care-check.html
Online, T. J. U. (2019, September 4). Exploring gender bias in healthcare. MedCity News. https://medcitynews.com/?sponsored_content=exploring-gender-bias-in-healthcare
Wesolowicz, D., Clark, J., Boissoneault, J., & Robinson, M. (2018). The roles of gender and profession on gender role expectations of pain in health care professionals. Journal of Pain Research, 11, 1121–1128. https://doi.org/10.2147/jpr.s162123