Sponsor
Project EQUALED was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The preparation of this article was supported by the National Institute of Health 3R25CA057711.
Published In
Psychology & Health
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Subjects
Physician and patient -- Psychological aspects, Patient-centered health care, Cultural competence, Minorities -- Medical care -- United States
Abstract
Objective: To gain a better understanding as to whether disparities in patient– provider relationships arise from ethnic minority patients being treated differently than European American patients while they would prefer to be treated the same, or whether disparities arise when ethnic minority patients are treated the same as European American patients while they would prefer to be treated differently.
Method: African-American, Latina/Latino and European American community members were recruited to participate in one of 27 focus group discussions. Topics included what made a good or bad relationship with a doctor and what led one to trust a doctor. A thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 10.
Results: Patients of all groups described experiences that reflected the concepts of patient-centred care, such as wanting a clinician who is attentive to patients’ needs. African-American patients reported experiences they viewed as discriminatory. Some African-American patients felt it was appropriate to racially/ethnically contextualise their care, and most Latina/Latino patients preferred language/culturally concordant clinicians.
Conclusion: Health care disparities might be reduced through a patient-centered approach to cultural competency training, general knowledge of the cultural context of clinicians’ patient population, and attention to the effects of racial bias and discrimination among both clinicians and non-clinical staff.
DOI
10.1080/08870446.2017.1284221
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/23635
Citation Details
Cuevas, A. G., O’Brien, K., & Saha, S. (2017). What is the key to culturally competent care: Reducing bias or cultural tailoring?. Psychology & Health, 32(4), 493-507.
Description
This work was authored as part of the Contributor's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Originally appeared in Psychology & Health, vol. 32, issue 4, 2017. Published by Taylor & Francis.
May be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2017.1284221.