Teaching Nurse Practitioner Students: the Obese African American Woman
Carolyn Rutledge, PhD, CFNP1, Laurel S. Garzon, DNSc, CPNP1, Richardean Benjamin, PhD, MPH1, Stacey Plichta, ScD2, Micah Scott, MSN, RN, BSN1, and Rita Klahr, RN, MSN1. (1) School of Nursing, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA, (2) College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
The Institute of Medicine committee in review of its report, Unequal Treatment Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, concluded that the provider is obviously the more powerful actor in clinical encounters and should shoulder more of the responsibility for seeing that disparities in care do not occur. In order for providers to reduce disparities they must see it first. This requires a new vision of the effect of race and culture of the lived experiences of members of minority groups in access and obtaining quality health care. The ability of a provider to develop a patient provider relationship that encourages the patient to share personal health concerns and needs and to trust the guidance of a nurse is vital in reducing morbidity and mortality rates among Americans from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The purpose of this program is to teach and evaluate nurse practitioner (NP) students on addressing healthcare issues related to obesity among African American women. The Campinha-Bacote’s model of cultural competency was used to develop the program. This program provides nurse practitioner (NP) students with the needed cultural encounters through standardized patient (SP) experiences to address healthcare issues related to obesity among African American women. Standardized Patients have become an integral part of NP education. Cases are presented by individuals from the community trained to present clinical scenarios, assess performance, and provide feedback. This case was developed to portray a low SES African American woman seeking health care for obesity related issues (joint pain, diabetes, and hypertension). Through the history, the students were to uncover and address cultural issues and healthcare barriers related to the patient that would impact their healthcare and ability to address health promotion activities. The SP gave the students feedback regarding their performance and sensitivity to their culture.