Analysis

from  Week 8: Marginalized Women and Childbearing Families

Feb 25, 2021 5:57PM

Raven Jinks

1.  As an advanced practice nurse, what are three actions you can take to mitigate social impacts to marginalized women?

According to Prodan-Bhalla and Browne (2019), marginalized women have been experiencing discrimination in the primary health care clinics leading to limited access to quality healthcare services. The research was conducted to determine the extent of effectiveness of equity-oriented health among marginalized women. As an advanced practice nurse, I would take some actions to mitigate the social impacts on marginalized women. To start with, I will establish relationships that are based on trust between the healthcare providers and marginalized women to ensure their unique health needs are addressed without leaking information concerning their health to the public (Prodan-Bhalla and Browne, 2019). This will increase the uptake of health services among women in this group thus ensuring better health outcomes. Second, I would tailor health care services to meet the needs of the marginalized women by ensuring the establishment of specific clinic that addresses their health problems. Tailor made health services will encourage this group of women to visit health facilities in order to have their problems addressed amicably. Third, I will ensure the adoption of a non-discriminatory approach that would make this group of women to feel accommodated in the health facilities without feelings of stigma from any individual or group of persons. This serves to ensure increased health outcomes among the marginalized women.

2.  What role does policy at either government, state, or local level play in the marginalization of women and childbearing families?

The government, state and local authority have a significant role in ensuring non-discriminatory practices in healthcare facilities. According to Prodan-Bhalla and Browne (2019), the government should enact policies that encourage equal treatment in the health facilities to enhance promotion of safety and trust among healthcare workers. This will limit chances of discrimination emanating from unique health care needs among marginalized women and childbearing families. In addition, the government should be strict in policies meant to ensure utmost ethical practices among nurses concerning privacy of various patients with special healthcare needs. They should also institute policies that avail unique clinics to address their unique medical needs with required level of dignity.

3.  Identify one policy that impacts marginalized groups (include whether the policy is at the federal, state, or local level).

One of the global policies that affect marginalized groups is the Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health that was initiated in 2010 (Temmerman, et al., 2015). It has been adopted by governments at both federal and state levels to ensure improvement of health among the marginalized women. This policy ensures reduced maternal mortality through enhanced maternal healthcare programs in different countries with the U.S being one of the countries embracing this policy initiative in both national and local levels. This policy cascades to the local level by ensuring family planning, facilitating school enrolment rates and increasing political participation among women. This ensures better outcomes concerning their health in the long term.

4.  Discuss how policy impacts marginalized group either positively or negatively.

Policies formulated both at international and national levels have a significant impact on the marginalized groups. As such, favorable policies are likely to improve the health outcomes among marginalized groups while unfavorable policies are likely to increase their misery. For instance, the policy on Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health that was initiated in 2010 has been instrumental in enhancing health outcomes among marginalized women and childbearing families (Napier, et al., 2017). It has served to ensure treatment of this group with dignity, expanding the healthcare options available for them and ensuring long-term benefits like ensuring education of female children, encouraging the participation of women in political and other decision-making realms. On the other hand, retrogressive policies that are against marginalized women tend to limit their health outcomes as well as encouraging prejudice in various health facilities (Callister, Vehvilainen-Julkunen, & Lauri, 2001)..

 

References

Callister, L. C., Vehvilainen-Julkunen, K., & Lauri, S. (2001). Giving birth: Perceptions of Finnish childbearing women. MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 26(1), 28-32.

Napier, D., Depledge, M. H., Knipper, M., Lovell, R., Ponarin, E., Sanabria, E., & Thomas, F. (2017). Culture matters: using a cultural contexts of health approach to enhance policy-making. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Prodan‐Bhalla, N., & Browne, A. J. (2019). Exploring women's health care experiences through an equity lens: Findings from a community clinic serving marginalized women. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(19-20), 3459-3469.

Temmerman, M., Khosla, R., Laski, L., Mathews, Z., & Say, L. (2015). Women’s health priorities and interventions. bmj, 351.

from  Week 8: Marginalized Women and Childbearing Families

Feb 27, 2021 6:08PM

Raven Jinks

Hi Mariya I enjoyed reading your discussion post, you brought up some great points about policy making, and how it is important at all levels either government, state, or local level in the marginalization of women and childbearing families. As you mentioned, when it comes to maternal mortality, there are policies that makes women of certain race or color to be at higher risk of maternal mortality. Just to elaborate on this point, most people are unaware that Black women are more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than White women. According to the CDC, Pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births (the pregnancy-related mortality ratio or PRMR) for Black and Alaska Native AI/AN women older than 30 was four to five times as high as it was for White women. One may ask why is this? There are many possible reasons why racial disparities continues to be an issue in healthcare, lack of access and poor quality of care are leading factors, particularly among women at lower socioeconomic levels especially Black woman.

 

Reference:

Racial and ethnic disparities continue in pregnancy-related deaths. (2019, September 06). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html