Preparing For Multicultural Diversity In Medicine Flashcards
What is unconcious bias
●How a person thinks can depend on their life experiences and sometimes they have beliefs and views about other people that might not be right or reasonable.
●When a person thinks:
•better of someone because they believe they’re alike
•less of someone because that person is different to them
●This means they could make a decision influenced by false beliefs or assumptions. Sometimes it’s also called ‘stereotyping’.
●It’s important to be aware of it and not let it affect behaviour or decisions.
What are the 9 protected characterises by the law (equality act)
Sex
Religion
Race
Age
Sexual orientation
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage
Pregnancy
Which characteristics not protected by the law
Class
Socioeconomic background
Body shape
Educational background
Etc
What is age
Discriminated due to age group e.g. not offering job to applicants under 30
Age limitation is allowed but has to be justified
E.g. Assuming that a 90-year old immobile and physically-fragile patient does not have mental capacity to consent to their own medical treatment
What is disability
Person has physical impairment and has substantial long term (over 12 months) adverse effect on normal activities
Some impairments treated as disability automatically:
Cancer, visual impairment, HIV infection etc
E.g. Being refused position because of mentioning in the job interview that you suffer with depression or other mental-health illness
However, e.g. epilepsy could prevent people from getting some jobs, e.g. becoming a pilot
Gender reassignment
A person undergoing process to reassign their sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex
Personal process not medical
Example from higher education: “Being ridiculed by other students for undergoing gender reassignment”
Marriage or civil partnership
Married partnership of any sex
Example from clinical practice: “A patient inappropriately quizzing a trainee doctor who lives in civil partnership, asking them why they are not married.”
RACe
Colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins
●Example from clinical practice: “A patient asking to be treated by a ‘British’ doctor, when they see you wearing a hijab, turban or other head covering.”
Religion or belief
Can also be discriminated due to association with certain sector of the religion
Philosophical belief: humanism, secularism and atheism
Sex
-Example from professional life: “Believing that men are better in certain jobs (doctors, surgeons, mechanics, physicists) and women better at other jobs (e.g. nurses, primary-school teachers) ”
Pregnancy or maternity
This applied so far only to women, men not protected under the equality act for paternal leave
Sexual orientation
You mustn’t be discriminated against because you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual.
