Week 11 HSCI 430 project

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Bob Barker

11/5/2019

ActionX

Northern Illinois University

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ACTIONX

Introduction

By utilizing the exercises provided by our text, I believe there are a lot of revelations that

can be made about mine and other’s experiences in cultural diversity. For me, as a white,

straight, male, I fall into the majority group in nearly every significant category. I feel that

falling into the majority categories makes this assignment difficult, in that I have to be able to

take an honest look in the mirror and assess my own biases and reservations that I may have

towards those of other groups. Naturally, it is difficult to recognize our own biases, why they

exist, and to then be critical of ourselves, but it is something that is important to do in all

aspects of our life. In the following paragraphs I will be explaining my own thought

processes and experiences that I had in completing the exercises: LifeLine Graph, The Power

of Observation, and Role: How do I Want to Operate. Additionally, I will provide my action

plan and how I will implement that in my daily life as a health care provider.

Activities and Reflections

For the LifeLine Graph I chose, like the textbook, to focus on race. I am a White

American and I chose also to interview a close friend of mine who was raised here in Illinois,

but is Vietnamese. What I found is that, to no surprise, I was much older than he was when I

first began to become more aware of different races and any positives or negatives. For me, I

was homeschooled, and didn’t really become acutely aware of race until I was about 7 or 8

when I remember a Hispanic boy of about 3 or 4 years old trying to speak to me in Spanish.

It was surprising to me when I realized he didn’t understand any English. My friend

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however, told me that he remembers being aware as early as preschool that he was the only

Asian kid, not just in his class, but in his entire school. For him, it was always something he

was aware of. He also explained to me some of the negative stereotypes he has experienced,

where people constantly made jokes about how smart or good at math he should be. These

types of racial jokes and/or stereotypes are not something that I recall being subjected to until

later in life, when I would be referred to as “acting white” for dressing or talking certain

ways. To me, being among the majority was clearly something that I was not aware of, and

did not have to be aware of for most of my childhood.

In performing the Power of Observation exercise, I reflected on the employees and

patient population of the clinic I currently work in. Briefly, the clinic I work in has 6

employees. 3 of my coworkers are female, and 3 of us are male. 5 of us are White

Americans, and 1 of my coworkers is from South Korea. Our onsite manager is a male; he as

well as 2 other males and 1 female are categorized as skilled positions, with the remaining 2

females occupying the semi-skilled positions. As far as age, two of my coworkers are in their

50s, one is in his 30s, and 3 of us are in our mid to upper 20s. Given the small size of our

clinic, I also reflected on the employee populations in the other 4 clinics as well as my own, 5

total, that fall within our regional division. In our region, there are 24 employees, 14 females

and 10 males. The skilled positions are 9 males and 6 females, with the remaining 9

occupying semi-skilled positions as 1 male and 8 female. Of the races, we have 1 South

Korean employee, 1 Indian, 1 Hispanic, 1 African American, and the remaining 20 are White

Americans. Within the 5 clinics, there are 3 employees occupying managerial roles, all 3 are

males, and all 3 work skilled positions in addition to their managerial roles. In addition, I

know of 1 homosexual employee in our region who is a white male occupying a skilled

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position and one of the managerial roles. That is as brief of a layout I can give for our

regional employee demographics.

Regarding the questions provided in our exercise, I think that there is a pretty good

division between men and women. Interestingly, there is pretty good division in my region

between men and women, with a near 50/50 split. However, were the clear difference lies is

with the managerial role, as well as skilled positions versus semi-skilled positions, with the

men occupying most of the management and skilled positions, and women occupying nearly

all of the semi-skilled positions. I would point out that of the 9 semi-skilled positions, 4 of

them are currently pursuing education for a skilled position in healthcare. There doesn’t seem

to me to be any glaring reasons why men occupy most of the management roles, except that

our company tends to promote from within, and our 3 managers in the region have been with

the company longer than any of the remaining 21 employees. I also believe that the racial

makeup of our region does not accurately reflect the racial makeup of our patient

populations. I believe that we see a higher percentage of African Americans, Indians, Asians,

and especially Polish Americans than what our staffing reflects. That being said, I can speak

best of my own clinic, and I believe that we do a good job of openly accepting other peoples’

differences. We do this by engaging with our patients, asking questions, and making

accommodations based on any needs that they may or may not have regarding their self

identities. I believe that one area we especially lack, however, is our ability to communicate

with limited English proficient populations. My specific clinic has only one bilingual

employee, and we have often struggled in communicating with patients that don’t speak our

language. One area of reflection that I have is that we should be doing a better job of utilizing

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translators by telephone, which our company provides, in order to ensure quality health care

for our patients.

For the final exercise, Role: How do I Want to Operate, I looked at specifically at

different managerial styles that I have experienced as a subordinate. As I want to be a manger

eventually, I feel this is important to reflect on. The most important thing that I have learned

and reflected on is the importance of being a good leader over being a good manager. As a

manger, it is essential to be able to recognize the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of your

employees, as well as what drives them to succeed. Doing this enables you to be able to

facilitate the best work out of your employees. It is also important for a manager to remain

humble, and recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. I have had more respect for

managers who can admit their own shortcomings and seek help, as well as managers who can

apologize when they screwed up and accept responsibility for their mistakes. These are

important qualities that I hope to have when I work as a manager.

Identity Statuses

Understanding dominant group identity versus accessible group identity statuses is

admittedly tricky for me. I fall into the majority in nearly all of the major categories. For my

dominant group identity status, I would say that I am a male, heterosexual, White American.

I say that these are my dominant group identities because these are the obvious traits that put

me among the majority group, and it is through these lenses that I view most of the world. Of

course, I fight the temptation to defend these majority groups because I fall within them, but I

have the ability to change my views regarding these groups. My accessible group identity

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that I think of is things like my religion. I am a Christian, but my interpretations and opinions

on things like the Bible and traditional practices can be ever-changing. And I am much more

willing to flex my opinions based on what I hear and learn about religion and the world

around me.

Action Plan Table

What are the

personal strengths I

discovered through

the self-exploration

exercises?

What actions can I take to

build on these strengths?

What are personal

shortcomings I learned

about through the self-

exploration exercises?

What actions can I

take to address these

shortcomings?

I listen well and am

open to learning

Continue to ask questions

and learn more about my

diverse patients so that I can

improve on my ability to

deliver quality care to them

My knowledge of

diverse populations is

limited

Continue to question,

study, and learn about

the diverse populations I

may be treating

I recognize good

leadership skills

Continue to study and put

into practice leadership skills

as I gain more

responsibilities as well as

with tasks I have at home or

anywhere else.

I have strong opinions,

and though I am open to

others, I am not always

willing to accept new

ideas

Perform honest

reflection, assessing the

validity of my opinions

and if there may be any

bias or flaws with them.

I have strong morals

I believe my morals are

good, and can grow in my

confidence to share and act

on them. Takes practice and

courage.

My own upbringing has

not exposed me to

hardships that many of

my diverse patients have

experienced

Though I am fortunate, I

would benefit from

questioning and learning

from the hardships my

diverse patients have

experienced.

I have a good memory

Engaging with patients and

learning helps me to

remember more about them,

and gives patients more

positive experiences with

healthcare.

Sometimes I speak too

quickly.

At times I need to better

think and evaluate the

way I phrase questions

or statements before

asking them, to avoid

offending anyone

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I feel that I am good at

self reflection

Regularly reflect on my own

skills as a healthcare

provider, my leadership

skills, and my ability to

engage with patients of

varying populations.

I have very limited

experience as a minority

As I have mentioned

above, it is important for

me to engage and learn

about experiences that

other minorities

experience, so that I can

understand and better

engage with other

patients who fall in

those same minority

groups.

Action Plan Description & Justification

I believe that one disadvantage that I have, though it pales in comparison to experiences

of many others, is that I have a lack of experience being in a minority population. Where I

have spent my entire childhood has put me in the majority of all the more major categories.

As a result, I think it is easy for me to take things for granted. Where I think I benefit, is that

I have good people skills and can recognize body language and social cues well. The reason I

chose the action plan the way that I did, is that I want the main focus to be learning about

other peoples’ cultures and the experiences that they have had, whether they fall in the

majority or minority group. How I achieve this goal is by being a good listener, and learning

from my patients. I believe that I have good people skills, and have been told before that I

have an ability to engage with people on nearly any topic of discussion. Whether that is true

or not, I believe that the reason I give off this impression is because I am willing to share

what knowledge I have, and ask questions about things I don’t understand. I also remember a

lot of details, and can recall this information when talking to other people about similar

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topics. The key to this is to ask questions in a curious way, with genuine desire to learn,

while withholding any judgment that I may have. I feel that I have good strong morals, which

stem from my Christian background, and that I form strong opinions about things. A

weakness that I have is that I sometimes, when learning about other peoples’ cultures, can let

my strong opinions show. Although I don’t intend to appear judgmental, I know that it does

at times, and I need to improve on my ability to withhold my own opinions, and accept what

others have experienced. It is important to note that simply asking questions and learning

about other peoples’ culture, religion, or opinions does not mean that I have to accept those

as right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and has likely formed those

beliefs based on their own experiences. I hope to be able to utilize my strengths, engaging

with patients, so that I can improve on my weaknesses and better understand the experiences

that my patients have had. No one will ever be able to understand the amount of diversity and

experiences that make each individual and their groups unique, but I believe that by entering

each conversation with a willingness to engage with them and learn from them is the best

place to start.

In conclusion, I believe that these exercises in our textbook do a good job facilitating self

reflection. It can be difficult to be critical of ourselves; however recognizing our own

strengths and weaknesses allows us to be able to grow as healthcare providers. The ultimate

goal is to be able to provide quality care to all of our patients, regardless of their diverse

backgrounds and identities. For me, as someone among the more common majority groups, it

is important for me to be able to engage with my patients and learn from them. Although a

lot can be learned from a textbook, I believe there is more value in what I can learn from my

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patients. By entering each conversation with a willingness to learn from them, I am making

myself a better healthcare provider.