Black Americans and the healthcare system

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Black Americans and the healthcare system

Different people and different cultures have different practices and ways of viewing the healthcare system and this helps us to understand why people when handled in a certain manner get anxious or nervous. It is in this same accord that this paper looks into the view and belief of different people about their own cultures as well as the other cultures. This paper, therefore, explains how black Americans view the health care system and why they view it in this manner. Therefore this paper explains from the view of one of the participants in an interview and who has been affected by racial segregation why the black American culture views the healthcare system the way they view it and what leads to this. It has always been my desire and will to know more and to interact more with these individuals and therefore through this work I was able to interact with one of the black Americans who were able to narrate to me what it means to be black in American society. Even though the interview and the conversation were majorly about the healthcare system there also seemed to be a very strong conviction and will to change the American societal belief system to value and see blacks as part of the whole story and not as outsiders (Dula, 1994).

The client whom I was interviewing being a black American had a lot of issues that were arising as his state of being black American and therefore he feared that at some point he will have to fear to stop going to hospitals and get into other methods of treatment which can serve him best. This is due to his description of the healthcare system as a corrupt one and one which is very discriminative towards the people of its own. He explained how it was difficult for him to get medical health care, especially from a white doctor or nurse. This is based on the fact that he said that black people are still considered not superior as whites are and therefore their place in the society is not as important as compared to that of the whites (Kennedy et.al. 2007).

It is from this that he views the healthcare system as one that is not efficient and inconsiderate in terms of its relationship with the black people and how it handles them. He described his category of people who are black Americans as forming a culture that is distinct from that of the whites as they are brought together by their segregation and therefore it is very easy for a black American to relate to another easily unlike how a black American can relate to a white American.

Some needs need to be taken care of and considered urgent and important when it comes to the health care system. This is with consideration and many efforts towards making the healthcare system-neutral especially for the blacks who feel left out. This is according to him as he stated that the black people also want to be treated with care, love, proper and clear communication among other factors which are very essential in the manner in which they are treated (Dula, 1994).

His perception of the way the people of his category which is the black Americans are treated in the US healthcare system was that they are never treated in an equal manner and respect as the whites and therefore this needed to be considered and changed (Feagin & Bennefield, 2014). The nurses, therefore, he suggested ought to remember that they are dealing with normal human beings whose value of life is equal to the whites and therefore they should treat each of these individuals with due respect.

References

Dula, A. (1994). African American suspicion of the healthcare system is justified: what do we do about it?. Cambridge Q. Healthcare Ethics, 3, 347.Feagin, J., & Bennefield, Z. (2014). Systemic racism and US health care. Social science & medicine, 103, 7-14.Kennedy, B. R., Mathis, C. C., & Woods, A. K. (2007). African Americans and their distrust of the health care system: healthcare for diverse populations. Journal of cultural diversity, 14(2).