This paper aims to critically analyze the healthcare health policy brief entitled “A Conceptual Map of Structural Racism in Healthcare” located on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s website. In brief, the paper by Furtado et al.,2023 discusses racial and ethnic-based disparities in healthcare provision in America, focusing on structural racism’s impact. Understanding these imbalances is pivotal to the APN field because they are essential for equal health provision. The next sections will be as follows: Brevity, with implications for APN practice and discernments between strengths or weaknesses, should disclose possible solutions without promoting it against advocating its implementation.
The health policy brief describes the structural racial and ethnic disparities in American healthcare, leading to differential outcomes for people from various groups. The critical point from the brief is that structural racism perpetuates these disparities (Furtado et al., 2023). The document shows that racial domination is significantly correlated with the historical and current laws, policies, and institutions, which results in unjust healthcare for most people. However, it also means that working to reduce health inequities should not be restricted to the surface level but go straight into structural racism.
The health policy brief also includes a prototypical schematic that analyzes the complex interplay between social structures and racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. The map shown is used to understand how social norms, values, and mental models structure racism, which creates inequity in health care delivery (Yearby et al., 2022). The paper emphasizes the relationship between healthcare and other industries, including education work and immigration; therefore, there is a need for integrated policy interventions. Finally, the brief calls for advocating a whole-of approach response to address structural racism and ensure long-lasting improvements in health.
The gaps in health care for different racial and ethnic groups within the U.S. must be adopted, referring to APNs, as they deliver excellent services based on race or color origin (Needham et al., 2023). These healthcare specialists should be the key players in identifying and addressing the underlying causes of these discrepancies. If the APNs admit that systemic racism affects health outcomes, they can advocate for critical policies aimed at increasing diversity.
Though a conceptual diagram can indicate core mechanisms at work, it is somewhat limited. Real-life applications become complex due to the oversimplification of complicated network connections, which leads to the generalized and simplified view of structural racism. This constraint may lead to misreadings and policy mistakes. Second, formulating anti-racist policies that can help to deal with racial disparities in different areas is also a complex process requiring collective efforts and collaboration (Yearby et al., 201). This involves a monumental struggle to overcome institutional inertia about such sweeping changes, which is necessary lest solutions are undermined. Besides that, the inability to identify structural racism as a source of health inequality can hinder the formation process for policies aimed at systematic problems. Additionally, policymakers and stakeholders who do not accept the vast devastation of racialized health outcomes add further hurdles to practical solutions.
The conceptual map is an influential advocacy tool that graphically reveals how structural racism is linked to health care disparities. This pictorial clarifies the issue so advocates and policymakers can show how extensive solutions are required. The map illuminates past and present influencing factors, implying the essential nature of historical forces as welandsibly color-blind contemporary policies. This holistic approach helps shape the policies that tackle structural racism. Additionally, the map’s recognition of relationships between healthcare systems and other fields gives a competitive edge. Policymakers may use this information to develop a cross-sectoral policy that would comprehensively help formulate all the leading contributors to health disparity, increasing the chance for meaningful and lasting change.
Although the conceptual map has strengths, it might fail to translate complex ideas into clear, concrete policies for policymakers and practitioners. However, problems with operationalizing the map’s strategies might be identified during their implementation due to misinterpretation, and oversimplification can constrain its effect on policy decisions. The proposed multi-faceted approach to policy may sound theoretically appealing, but it has its practical challenges (Needham et al.,2023). The brief acknowledges the need for transformations in healthcare and other areas, attaching to education, workforce development, and immigration. Nevertheless, the task of coordinating policy practices in various domains is a challenging one for real-world policies. Also, using a conceptual map as a significant instrument may limit availability for participants not used to visual representations. This possible impediment might stifle the brief’s efficiency in accommodating a diverse audience and securing widespread endorsement for proposed solutions.
Addressing disparities among racial and ethnic groups, which are caused by structural racism, requires specific multi-faceted approaches. To begin with, the policymakers have to carry out strategies addressing historical and current race-based legislation against later remediating past racial policies that used structural racism within healthcare. Following that, advocating race-conscious policies is vital and ensures intentional consideration of race in policymaking to counter supposedly racially neutral policies that unintentionally contribute to the difference. Identifying racial and ethnic disparities in health care policies can catalyze the process of reversing wrongful outcomes. Besides the previous solution, encouraging community participation and education is essential. Participation of communities affected by policies in policymaking contributes to cultural relevance and culturally sensitive interventions. It creates an educational campaign that teaches people to understand the effects of structural racism to have a collective understanding and support for systemic change.
As an APN advocate for a policy position, some factors should always be remembered. To begin with, the APNs should collaborate with policymakers to help them zoom in on the everyday problems their patients have, especially those who are marginalized groups. These cases should serve as the basis of policy debates, and APNs must always promote initiatives to address the root causes of disparities. In addition to the role above, APNs have an essential role in informing healthcare teams about how structural racism affects them. They may strengthen understanding in their fields and raise awareness of collateral forces contributing to health disparities between professionals. This educational advocacy empowers health workers to act collaboratively against structural racism. A third aspect of APN advocacy is to develop strong relationships with community leaders. To make policy proposals meet the reality of necessities in communities, APNs should have community leaders participate actively when engaging with their constituents. The collaborative approach to proposed interventions reinforces their strength and promotes a sense of ownership in those that it touches.
APNs must identify and resolve potential deficiencies or undesirable consequences when discussing policy developments. The necessary decisions should cover a tremendous healthcare system. Therefore, an interdisciplinary method is required as other features are controlled by different relationships between numerous health institutions and organizations that govern education or work environments. It includes promoting policies to the linked issues that contribute to inequality rather than a simplistic approach. The function of counter-advocacy is to identify possible adverse effects (Torrens et al.,2020). As clinical experts, APNs assess whether proposed measures endanger patient safety or impact health services provision. This prophylactic method prevents policy reforms that produce unnecessary and new injustice. A third dimension of policy advocacy involves providing evidence that relies on more than just policies as guides to action. In this process, the APN would be the facilitator during a practical discussion structured by constructs built on interventions and evidence with complex details. This approach makes the recommended treatments robust and evidence-based, therefore more effective.
The health policy brief discusses societal structures, mental models, and differences that arise due to the race or ethnicity of people, which affects healthcare. Determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats according to a concept map before policy implementation is essential. Second, the suggested recommendations address various and vanguard approaches to abolishing structural racism in health results. This interchange is defined in terms of cooperation among policymakers, healthcare providers, and community leaders, whereby the APNs either support or reject a policy proposal. Therefore, APNs are required to concentrate on policies that address the health issues associated with side effects and study therapies. The health policy brief focuses on the critical role of campaign-oriented activities that strive to overcome structural racism in medicine and have become essential tools for APNs. Their primary goal is to identify variation and implement evidence-based, broad-minded approaches for equality to become a reality among all people.
Furtado, K., Verdeflor, A., & Waidmann, T. (2023, October 25). A conceptual map of structural racism in healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/our-research/2023/10/a-conceptual-map-of-structural-racism-in-healthcare.html
Yearby, R., Clark, B., & Figueroa, J. F. (2022). Structural Racism In Historical And Modern U.S. Health Care Policy: Study examines structural racism in historical and modern U.S. health care policy. Health Affairs, 41(2), 187–194. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01466
Needham, B. L., Ali, T., Allgood, K. L., Ro, A., Hirschtick, J. L., & Fleischer, N. L. (2023). Institutional racism and health: A framework for conceptualization, measurement, and analysis. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 10(4), 1997-2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40615-022-01381-9
Torrens, C., Campbell, P., Hoskins, G., Strachan, H., Wells, M., Cunningham, M., … & Maxwell, M. (2020). Barriers and facilitators to implementing the advanced nurse practitioner role in primary care settings: a scoping review. International journal of nursing studies, 104, 103443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.103443