Obesity individuals endure stigmatization and victimization in numerous methods of bias owing to their physical weight. Weight stigma is prevalent among health care workers, affecting the quality of health care services delivered to fat patients (Plotnikoff, Ronald C, p. 355). This study will examine the origins of prejudice and techniques for reducing in-hospital bias, as well as explain the actions required to improve emergency health care services for obese patients.
Obesity has become a major public health concern all over the world. Over the past decades, there has been an increase in obese discussion and its related health complication, like depression, hypertension, blood pressure, diabetes, and heart diseases (Puhl, Rebecca M. et al, p. 20). In hospital paradigm, obese patients are often dissociated from society through experiences of rejection and stigmatization, which may have more additional effects on psychological and health of the patient. The impact of obese prejudice on the patient include anxiety, binge eating, depression, low self-esteem, self-harm and possibly suicide.
According to Bray, George A, and Claude Bouchard (p. 42) health care providers, such as nurses, physicians, pharmacist, and psychologist have negative attitudes towards overweight patients, including the conviction that overweight patients are noncompliant, lazy, posse low willpower, and indiscipline. Due to this, obese victimization and stigmatization among health care providers decrease the quality of care service delivered to obese patients. In addition to provider’s attitude, overweight management skills and health care experiences of obese patients may compromise and deteriorate care services offered to obese patients. This leads to poor service delivery and endangers the health of obese patients.
Treatment and Bias
In order to address the relation between patient treatment and bias, it is essential to demonstrate obese and stigma against obese individuals in a medical context. Here, healthcare providers believe that they treat their patients equally, but they are guilty of obese bias. Even healthcare providers specialized in obese disorder harbors a bias or stigma against the very patients they treat (Puhl, Rebecca M., and Chelsea A. Heuer, p. 946). For this reason, obese bias among healthcare providers is inhibited by the treatment of the patients. In addition, obese bias in patient treatment is manifested in the actions offered by the healthcare providers towards patients, thereby affecting the process of medical decision making. In spite of their sigma and obese attitudes, healthcare providers still continue to believe they are competent enough to offer treatment or prescribe weight loss programs to obese patients.
Origin of Obese Bias in Hospital Paradigm
Healthcare practices may, in fact, infuriate obese bias. According to Puhl, Rebecca M., and Chelsea A. Heuer (p. 953) study of registered nurses and nursing student, they tend to show bias against their obese patients. Thus, the study raises the question about the origin of obese bias and how it propagates. In hospital paradigm, healthcare providers can face a number of challenges when examining as well as caring for obese patients, such as difficulty with accessing venous and limb manipulation. These physical challenges worsen healthcare’s provider’s negative association with obese patients.
Healthcare provider’s bias against an obese individual is likely to affect their care services. As outlined by Plotnikoff, Ronald C (p. 356), the majority of obese patient’s fears undergoing a pelvic examination and quite a good number of healthcare providers are reluctant to do a pelvic analysis on an obese patient. For this reason, these aspects of obese patient’s medical care greatly impact negative attitudes on healthcare providers, thereby creating bias. This biases experienced in hospital paradigm has a significant impact on obese patient’s medication care and needs attention was well as correction to ensure that obese patients receive quality and safe care.
Intervention Measures to Reduce Obese Bias in Hospital Paradigm
Obese stigmatization attitudes are considered to be resilient to any form of change, and there are quite a good number of unsuccessful efforts that have been implemented to intervene. However, interventions that try to address obese controllability beliefs have shown to reduce obese bias in a healthcare setting. These measures help to reduce obese bias through education and training about uncontrollable causes of obesity (Ciao, Anna C., and Janet D. Latner, p. 1770). In this regard, the intervention addresses the attitudes of healthcare providers towards their belief that obese is controllable. Furthermore, healthcare providers need to explore the main notion behind their bias and bring the whole issues into consciousness, to address physical challenges that contribute to obese stigmatization. These can be attained by close association with obese patients to reduce negative attitude that suggests obese is a personality flaw rather than a disorder.
Blame attitude by the healthcare providers seems to be their main cause of obese bias. Separating patient blame and personality association from obese disorder is an integral step in addressing obese stigmatization. In addition, identifying and labeling obese prejudice is another important element of addressing victimization against obese patients (Huizinga, Mary Margaret et al, p. 1237). These labels are essential in validating the existence of victimization and outline the best measure of addressing biases. Thus, healthcare providers should always be comfortable in applying labels in obese bias to ensure full attentions are given to the problem.
Improving Emergency Care Service for Obese Patients
The prevalence of obese patients is rising yearly, and they are at high risks of developing health complication, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, and depression (Puhl, Rebecca M. et al, p. 20). Due to this, there is need of an improved emergency care system to address the issue of mortality and morbidity in obese patients. In obese patients, blood pressure reading can falsely reassure healthcare providers as the cuff often overestimates blood pressure leading to early resuscitation and initiation of unnecessary treatment. In order to obtain accurate blood pressure readings, there is need of considering placing an early arterial line to ensure accurate reading is obtained over time.
Electrocardiogram testing (ECG) in obese patients differs from a test meant for average individuals. An ECG of the overweight patient is more likely to show low voltages, prolong QT intervals and signs of left ventricular hypertrophy (Levitan, R. M, p. s165). Thus, there is need of considering echocardiogram in order to rule out obese related cardiomyopathy. Addressing pharmacological adjustments in an obese emergency is an essential element of avoiding medication administration errors (Bambi, Stefano et al, p. 294). Consulting with the pharmacist is important in providing appropriate medication dosage based on their pharmacodynamics. Obese patients are vulnerable to severe trauma compared to average-sized individuals. There is a need for healthcare providers to be aware of important limitations when administrating assessment and workout to obese patients when in the trauma bay (Bray, George A, and Claude Bouchard). However, some obese patients may be too heavy for computed tomography (CT) scans. In this case, there is need of using bariatric CT scanner.
Conclusion
Stigmatization of obese patients in hospital paradigm is real, and it has a potentially negative impact on the health of the patients. The perpetuation of the prejudice against an obese individual is as results of healthcare provider’s unwillingness to accept it as a disease. No longer should healthcare providers continue tolerating such discrimination in their practices. Attending training and seminars serves the best intervention of addressing obese bias. Also, promoting sensitization of obesity begins by accepting the issue as a disorder and talking about it. Elimination of obese biases in healthcare setting requires a multifaceted approach, such as education of health providers to promote confidences in the provision of quality and safe care to all patients.
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