Develop a 2,500-4,000 written project that includes the following information as it applies to the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need profiled in the capstone change proposal:

Capstone Project Change Proposal

Background

The United States (U.S) is the world’s most diverse country. However, this diversity has contributed to the problem of discrimination in all aspects of society, from the criminal justice system to education to health care. Discrimination in the U.S is majorly against minority racial groups. Discrimination also occurs against an individual’s gender, social class, and healthcare condition, among other reasons. Discriminatory practices against minority racial groups have permeated and persisted in the health care system. Discrimination within the U.S healthcare system includes practices and actions that do not consider an individual’s or group’s physical and mental health outcomes (Togioka et al., 2022). Racial discrimination within the health care system can occur directly and indirectly through association, perception, victimization, and harassment.

Racial discrimination in health care in the United States against minority racial minorities, especially Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans, is majorly perpetuated by the health providers individuals seek health care assistance from. Racially motivated discrimination by health providers leads to an individual or whole community feeling disempowered and marginalized, developing lower self-perception, lower self-confidence, weakening their social ties, and mistrust towards the health care system (Carter et al., 2018). The negative healthcare outcomes for these minority groups due to racial discrimination and the experiences of healthcare professionals from related backgrounds remain a healthcare issue of concern in the U.S.

The current racially discriminatory practices in the U.S healthcare system have developed from the previously existing segregated healthcare systems. It has much been influenced by the pre-existing Jim Crow laws and racist codes that have racialized access to social and economic opportunities, healthcare delivery and access, and open medical and social discrimination. The current social restructuring happening in the U.S, majorly fueled by post-COVID-19 pandemic, racially-motivated events, and the use of social media such as Twitter, has ignited discussions on the existence of structural racism, racial discrimination, and disparities in healthcare access. As frontline and primary healthcare providers, nurses have a role to play in identifying and eliminating structural racism and racial discrimination within the U.S healthcare system. For such progress to be achieved, research needs to focus on nurses’ and healthcare providers’ roles in exacerbating racial discrimination against minority racial groups within the healthcare system. The focus should be paid to various provider-focused interventions and compare such interventions in solving racial discrimination as well as barriers to the interventions and ways of overcoming such barriers to achieve racially equitable healthcare systems.

Clinical Problem Statement

The provisions of the U.S. Constitution require that every individual residing within the U.S have full access to healthcare services regardless of race, age, gender, and nationality. This means every person has a right to non-discriminative, safe, high-quality care. However, there exist major racial disparities in health access in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed rampant racial segregation and discriminatory practices within the U.S, as identified in post-pandemic research (Hu et al., 2020). For instance, compared to Whites, a majority of people from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds have limited access to mental health care, majorly due to healthcare provider-related discrimination based on race (Green et al., 2020). Individuals from racial minority backgrounds are more likely to be denied access to quality care, less likely to access preventive health care services, or more likely to receive lower levels of quality and culturally insensitive care than their White counterparts.

The discrimination based on race within the health care systems is much fed by the lack of diversity among the health care professionals, especially the nursing profession, and the existence of implicit and explicit biases from the nurses. These long-held biases are the basic factors promoting the current racial disparities experienced in the U.S and the open racial segregation within nursing care. The implicit and explicit bias is being fed by structural racism and the lack of knowledge and appreciation of other cultures among major nursing professions. The structural racism and previous acts of racial segregation within the U.S society have also created the perception of a dominant culture held majorly by nurses and other healthcare professionals from white majority backgrounds. The experiences of the previously identified forms of r