Clinical Practice Of The Emergency Department - 1152 Words

In clinical practice, there was a First Nations patient that disclosed his experience prior to his hospital admission where he encountered stigma and racism from strangers and health care employees. The patient describes how he was walking on a street, suddenly losing complete strength in both legs causing him to fall down. He was struggling with getting up as he could not regain his strength. There were strangers surrounding him; however, the patient articulated that while he was vulnerable and lacked the ability to mobilize, there was no one there to provide assistance or support. The strangers walked away with weird expressions portrayed on their face, although they witnessed his need for help. He remained on the ground for a while,†¦show more content†¦3). Numerous minority groups exist present-day in many countries throughout the world. The Aboriginals, a minority group, in Canada reluctantly experience societal racism and judgemental views since the past and currently in the present 20th century. The ramifications are loss of culture and history through the abolishment of First Nations’ culture, and numerous social injustice and inequality regarding healthcare experiences. For the purpose of this paper, the patient must remain unidentified for confidentiality purposes. The stereotyping and discrimination towards First Nations people and the relationship between marginalization, intersectionality, and oppression needs to be addressed to promote cultural sensitivity to ensure healthcare equality in this vulnerable population. Institutional racism can be interpreted as prejudiced judgements incorporated into culture and society as means to segregate minority groups (Forsythe, 2007, pp. 34). This is evident in health care systems across the world as a result of years of European colonization and assimilation of Aboriginal culture (Forsythe, 2007, pp.34). The effects of racism is enhanced by the concept of ‘othering’ where self awa reness of the differences between self and others influence ‘us’ to discriminate and degrade ‘them’ (Maccallum, 2002, pp.87-88). Humans tend to focus on dissimilarity in the diversity of ethnic groups in comparison