According to the CDC, black women are three times more likely to die after childbirth than white women in the United States. This is a statistic I read in an NPR article in 2021, titled “Trying To Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians.” I was shocked to read how many Black women are met with discrimination, or simply do not feel safe in the care of non-Black physicians. The article explains that black patients are often under-treated, having their pain ignored and are less frequently referred for specialty care, which usually occurs due to an unconscious bias held by doctors.
After reading the article, I thought back to being an early teenager, when I was experiencing health issues that my male doctor would never have the ability to relate to. I requested a female doctor, who understood what I was going through, and set up a treatment plan that best fit my needs, all while making me feel comfortable and respected. I now imagine how I would feel if my pain was brushed off, and if I was refused the treatment I needed because I was told I would be fine without it. As a white woman, it would be easy for me to switch doctors until I knew that I was being treated with the proper care that I needed. For many Black people, however, this is not always possible because of the lack of representation in the medical field.
There are a handful of reasons as to why Black patients are not treated with proper care so frequently, all of them due to implicit racial biases in medicine. For example, non-Black healthcare providers are less likely to understand a Black patient’s facial expressions when they are experiencing pain, according to the National Institutes of Health. Another study found that many white medical students believe that black people can better tolerate pain than white people, while another found that white doctors are 10% less likely to admit Black patients to the hospital.
The impact of this discrimination is extremely dangerous to Black communities, as it leads to misdiagnosis, delayed care, and even death. Examples of health inequality in the United States were identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2015, who found that POC had a lower life expectancy, higher blood pressure, lower rates of the flu vaccine, and a higher strain on mental health. The dismissal and mistreatment of Black patients by healthcare providers is a betrayal of trust, and violates one of the most basic human rights to receive respectful care. Not only is it dangerous to physical health, but it is also dehumanizing to be ignored and treated as though your pain is not important.
One resolution to this problem depends on the ability to dismantle racial bias not only in the medical field, but all together. This, however, is a challenging feat that would take years to overcome, due to the long history of racism and discrimination in the United States. It is important and necessary to begin somewhere, though, and many medical schools across the country have required students to undergo implicit bias training. On top of making this training necessary, medical schools should prioritize diversity when teaching their students by providing them with experiences and exposure to diverse patient populations.
While it shouldn’t be necessary for Black patients to find Black healthcare providers to receive the healthcare they deserve, it is important for there to be representation in medical spaces with doctors who share experiences and values. Having diversity in doctors offices and hospitals also brings in new perspectives to other doctors, providing them with a sense of cultural awareness and sensitivity that can improve the care of patients with diverse backgrounds. Again, I think back to being a young patient in need of someone who was empathetic to my experience and ensured that I was in safe hands. A huge population of people may not have this experience, and their lives are at risk because of it, which is why it is important that diversity is not only welcomed, but prioritized in the healthcare system.
- Representation matters, even in medicine – by Peyton Schultz - March 22, 2023