Marginalized Women and Childbearing Families Nursing Paper Example

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

As a Nurse Practitioner, one action I can implement to mitigate social impacts to marginalized women is by providing advocacy for policies that will protect women from social discrimination and promote accessibility.

These policies will aim at creating a welcoming and comfortable environment, promote emotional safety, trust, and increase overall quality of care. Studies have shown that there are many policies at the government, state, and local levels that prevent women from accessing healthcare (Andermann, 2020).

For example, women or even single mothers with mental illness and substance abuse have difficulties in accessing treatments than do men with the same issues. (Prodan‐Bhalla & Browne, 2019). Since nurse practitioners can work with and influence policymakers, this gives the NP the advantage to advocate for policies that protect women from marginalization.

Another way is by improving access and quality of care to marginalized women. The NP can use a range of approaches which include: providing patients with bus fare and child care services to make it easier for them to attend appointments; documenting language preferences of patients, identifying language skills of practitioners and providing interpreter services; extending clinic hours and locating clinics close to where people live and work; offering a welcoming and culturally safe practice environment and also creating opportunities to provide health care services beyond the clinic walls, such as outreach to disadvantage communities by partnering with community groups and religious organizations (Andermann, 2016).

Another action as an NP would be providing women-friendly healthcare services that are individualized per patient needs, building trust with the women, and making health services easily accessible to them. focus on unearthing policies that promote discrimination of women and recommend more women-friendly policies (Andermann, 2016)

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

Policies at government, state, or local levels have played a role in the marginalization of women and miority families. Studies have shown that in communities, there are discriminative and unjust structural policies that limit women’s access to healthcare and promote health inequities.

There are state policies, that encourages structural racism in health care and social service delivery which means marginalized women often receive poorer quality care than men in the same social ranking (Michener & Brower, 2020).

It means the denial of care when women seek help when enduring pain or that health care and social service providers fail to treat them with dignity and respect (Michener & Brower, 2020).

These stressors and the cumulative experience of racism and sexism, especially during sensitive developmental periods, trigger a chain of biological processes, that undermines the women’s physical and mental health.

Other policies do not promote women access to employment opportunities, often leading women to low income, high employment rates, and lack of opportunities to get educated (Prodan‐Bhalla & Browne, 2019). Nurse practitioners can advocate for better policies from government, state, or local levels to reduce social injustices towards women.

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

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, called determinants of health (Michener & Brower, 2020).

Among the policies that have an impact on marginalized groups in the United States is the healthcare policy. The policy, which is funded at the federal level, should make healthcare accessible and affordable to all citizens in the country.

Even though these policies seek to create and implement laws, rules, and regulations to govern every citizen, the young and the most disadvantage women are not able to access high- quality healthcare services due to their socio-demographic background (Prodan‐Bhalla & Browne, 2019). The federal policy should implement health equity by ensuring universal healthcare access to all citizens in the country.

Discuss how policy impacts marginalized group either positively or negatively.

Policies implemented by the government or states can affect marginalized groups positively or negatively. These policies are implemented in such a way that it affects all the individuals or sectors of that community it is meant for.

In this case, these policies can affect marginalized communities either negatively or positively. For example, policies that deny women equal opportunities for employment will lead to many women having low or no source of income (Michener & Brower, 2020).

In this case, this policy affects the marginalized section negatively. An example of such policy is the 1970s and 1980s, economic nondiscrimination policies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEO) that was intended to reduce gender inequality in the labor force, it did not shift racialized inequality among women.

While the EEO had the largest effect on women’s economic position compared with men, women still experienced less wage gains overall compared with men (Michener & Brower, 2020). However, there are policies that could result in positivity for the marginalized woman.

For example, health policies ensure healthcare services are accessible and affordable to all citizens through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid (Michener & Brower, 2020). Through the policy, even low- income earners, disabled, and older adults are able to access and afford high-quality healthcare.

It shows how policy impact marginalized groups in a positive way. Policymakers should strive to ensure that policies have positive as opposed to negative impacts (Michener & Brower, 2020).

References

Andermann, A., (2016). Taking Action on the social determinants of health in clinical practice: a framework for health professionals. Canadian Medical Association journal, 188(17-18). https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.160177

Michener, J & Brower, T M. (2020). What’s Policy Got to Do with It? Race, Gender & Economic Inequality in the United States. An American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (109-117). Retrieved from https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/publication/downloads/Daedalus_Wi20_7_Mi chener%20Brower.pdf/.

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. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14937