Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States are often faced with the lack of equal access and equal treatment in the healthcare provider’s practices. Such disparities can be evidenced by restricted use of health care facilities, poor health care services, quack health care practitioners, or prejudice at the health care facilities. For instance, African Americans and Hispanics are limited in the utilization of health care services, especially primary care, as compared to Whites, resulting in poor health standards and the prevalence of chronic diseases (Carabello et al. , 2020; Guo et al., 2023). Also, it has been established that minority patients experience higher levels of stress and worse mental health if they perceive discrimination in healthcare facilities, which contributes to health inequalities (Yearby et al., 2022).

Factors such as history and systems contribute to the reasons behind these discriminations. Historical prejudices and current social disparities have developed and maintained hurdles that Black people and Hispanics cannot surmount to achieve sufficient medical care. This prospectus needs to elaborate on the first-person narrative of racial and ethnic minorities in urban centers regarding their encounters with the health sector. Thus, the study tries to understand where bias and discrimination have negative influences on the lives of the participants and suggest where potential modifications are necessary for healthcare policies and practices to ensure a better future and improved healthcare equity (Duran & Perez-Stable, 2019; Johnson, 2022).

Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States have long suffered from unequal access to quality healthcare services. H learner’s note: These inequities, or variations in health and health care between groups, are typically caused by social determinants that have restricted minorities’ access to quality care. These barriers hinder these populations from accessing appropriate healthcare, and they tend to experience poor health with increased rates of chronic illnesses.

Modern approaches to healthcare inequality can be attributed to such factors as a racially inclusive society in the United States of America. These laws that were under the Jim Crow laws saw that Black people were to be separated from whites in all facets of life, including the use of hospitals. African Americans were not always denied healthcare, but there seemed to be inherent racism built in the healthcare system even after they comprised the civil rights movement that saw an end to apparent racism. This has made minority groups, especially the black populace, develop a strong bias against the healthcare system due to previous wrong things which were done to them, including the syphilis study on Black men.

Socio-demographic patterns play a significant role in the reinforcement of patient care disparities. Socioeconomic status is an essential predictor of residents’ health and ability to receive proper medical assistance, as well as the quality of such assistance. The minority groups are more likely to be found within the less privileged categories of the population, which means that they have poor access to healthcare services. These situations are widened by poverty, unemployment, and low literacy levels because people in such status cannot afford healthcare services.

Another key factor is the geographic location. Members of the minority tend to live in built-up sections of society and have little chance to access a physical clinic. These areas are the healthcare desert, primary and specialty care physicians, and overall healthcare facilities. Due to the limited availability of appropriate healthcare in these places, patients’ conditions worsen before they are even diagnosed, their diseases go untreated, and they are hospitalized more often for diseases that could have been prevented (Guo et al., 2023).

Cultural and Linguistic Barriers

Another factor for minority disparities is the cultural and linguistic variations between healthcare providers and minority patients. Cultural and linguistic differences are major drawbacks in patient-doctor communication as they cause mishaps, improper diagnosis, and management of patient’s symptoms. Culture defines the approach to health and how people think about it, including its care. For instance, some minorities adhere strictly to cultural practices, which will resist taking their time to go for conventional treatments. Therefore, physicians and other healthcare workers who have low cultural understanding may not accord similar values and esteem to such beliefs and, therefore, lead to dissatisfied and non-compliant African patients.

Discrimination in Healthcare Settings

Prejudice within healthcare organizations continues to be a primary cause of unequal access to health care. A lot of minority patients claim to have undergone bias, prejudice, and unequal treatment in health facilities. These kinds of encounters can prevent people from receiving care, following treatments, and interacting with the system. Prejudice can be expressed in such ways as; differential treatment, stereotyping and micro aggression. These negative interactions lead not only to the deterioration of the immediate quality of care but also degrade minority patients’ long-term health outcomes by creating an environment of distrust and animosity between patients of color and the healthcare system (Yearby et al., 2022).

Impact on Health Outcomes

The interaction and summation of these factors lead to the conclusion that the minority population experience poorer health conditions than the majority population. They elicit the point that African Americans have an elevated incidence of hypertension, diabetes, and some types of cancer than whites. Latinos are more affected by obesity and diabetes, among other illnesses. It also demonstrated that Native Americans have shorter life expectancies and are more prone to diseases, for example, alcoholism and suicide. Despite being categorized as the “model minority,” Asian Americans also suffer from health inequalities, especially the minority who belong to the low class.

These differences are not only in health but, even more so, in social equity. The gaps in the Healthcare provision and utilization show the general and persistent social injustice that violates the sector’s social justice principles. It has to do with equity and social justice which are moral and ethical issues in any enlightened society.

Recent Attempts and Current Issues

There has been more awareness of healthcare inequalities along with attempts to rectify them in the recent past. Still, the Obama-initiated policies, including the ACA, tried to increase the minorities’ access to healthcare services. Some of the ACA tenets including the Medicaid expansion, community health centers, and the emphasis on preventive care appear to have had some favorable effects concerning disparities. However, such efforts are sometimes not enough to eliminate substantive prejudices that minorities constantly experience.

These attempts, nevertheless, expose disparities in healthcare, pointing to the need for enhanced, intensive approaches. A literature review has indicated that interventions must consider socially determined factors of disparity, such as socioeconomic differences, space, culture, and prejudice. Interventions toward dismantling theonym are anti-racism policies, reformations of the healthcare systems, community mobilizations, and culturally sensitive healthcare workers (Carabello et al., 2020; Duran & Perez-Stable, 2019).

The Role of Research

Knowledge gathering is a vital step in analyzing and responding to healthcare inequities. Mixed methodology, especially the qualitative type, is very appropriate for recording and discovering the factors influencing such parities, starting with the social experience of minorities. Despite these limitations, research that revolves around or transforms personal positions and impressions can be useful in unravelling the obstacles in minority populations and directing viable intercessions. In general, the method most suitable to study the phenomenon of healthcare disparities and the clients' experiences is phenomenological research, which investigates the experiences and perceptions of people.

Healthcare disparities among the racial and ethnic minority groups in the USA is painful evidence of historical and systematic discrimination that renders minority groups’ access to quality health care unattainable. They are compounded by socio-economic discrepancies, area, culture, and racism or discrimination accepted in healthcare facilities. Though these factors have been attempted to be resolved, there are various limiting challenges that still need to be addressed hence require further research and considerable intervention. Through analyzing the minority groups’ situations and factors that lead to the gap, this work seeks to make health care policies and delivery that have an impact on minorities’ lives more acceptable and help enhance their health (Perez-Stable & Webb Hopper, 2023; Johnson, 2022).

The issue under investigation in this dissertation project is that minorities in the United States continue to experience healthcare disparities even though there have been various policies and interventions on the same lately. Based on status, it could be seen that there is a large discrepancy between minority status and white populations in terms of healthcare access. It is also important to aim at equity in terms of quality and outcomes: different studies indicate that gaps exist in those aspects as well (Carabello et al., 2022; Duran & Perez-Stable, 2019). The preferred future state of this social issue is an efficient health care system that does not discriminate against people based on their race or ethnic background and can provide quality health care services to everyone. The current state, contrary to the pre-nursing picture displays that ethnic minorities still face many barriers that culminate in detrimental effects on their health.

People Affected and Possible Outcomes

The groups that are most affected by this issue are the people of color such as Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian populations. These groups are more likely to face outcomes that involve delayed or missing medical care due to structural factors of disadvantage such as SES, racism, and geography (Guo et al., 2023; Hoagland & Kipping, 2024). They include a high prevalence of clinical deterioration of mental status, an increased number of suicide attempts, and a high rate of mortality among such patients if this issue is not dealt with. Others are more morbidity and mortality for ethnic minorities, higher payouts because of regularly required emergency attention for treatable diseases, and an expanded society through continual prejudice and injustice. In addition to the inefficiency in managing the disparities, the health system loses public confidence while struggling to achieve health equity (Jindal et al., 2023; Johnson, 2022). Therefore, it is crucial to work toward eliminating such disparities, not only due to the realm’s ethical aspects but also to maintain and optimize the efficacy of the healthcare system.

Racial disparity in health care is still an issue in the United States of America for minority groups in health care. Even in the current society, many inequalities exist in accessing healthcare; for example, racial/ethnic minorities are known to be excluded from getting proper and timely healthcare. Distinct attention should be paid to the qualitative research theme as it aims to identify the difficulty that patients from various equity groups experience regarding fair access to health services. Demographic imbalances that take ages lower the minority’s health and raise morbidity and mortality levels, thus negating complicated social justice and parity. Therefore, this issue can be accommodated in healthcare leadership, management, and policy since society must develop policies and strategies to help everyone access healthcare. Recent studies acknowledge the worsening of such disparities and show that Carabello et al. (2020), identifying racism and ethnicity gaps in healthcare twenty years ago, underscore the significance of effective action.

The problem under study in this dissertation project is that despite the research on various policies and interventions to address this problem in the recent past, minorities in the United States still suffer from inadequate healthcare. According to the status, it was seen that there was a big gap between the minority and the whites when it came to healthcare facilities (Carabello et al., 2022; Duran & Perez-Stable, 2019). The desired future for this social issue means that there should be a good healthcare system that does not neglect people depending on the color of their skin and it should be able to offer its services to everyone. This current state that defiles nursing paints the picture that ethnic minorities are still surrounded by several barriers that translate into adverse outcomes for their health.

The aim of this qualitative applied doctoral research study is to determine and conceptualize the existing challenges of racial and ethnic minorities in accessing quality health care in the USA (Hoagland et al., 2024). This research will employ phenomenology as the research method because it is suitable for eliciting the participants’ experiences with the healthcare system as members of marginalized minority groups.

Qualitative Research Questions

How are Racial and Ethnic minorities disadvantaged when seeking healthcare services in various healthcare facilities in large and small urban areas in the USA?

This question will seek to find out the personal accounts of minority groups in the health sector, with an emphasis on racial, ethnic, economic, and regional exclusion. It is in accordance with the aim of identifying existing shortcomings in the field to assist the institutions involved in the leadership, management, and policymaking within the health sector on the areas of focus.

What role does bias and discrimination in healthcare play in the general well-being of ethnic and racial minorities?

This question aims to determine the effect of perceived and actual discrimination on the health of minorities. It examines people's stories to determine how they affect their health and concerns, which can be used to reform the policies and practices of the healthcare system.

Is the difference in the access to healthcare among racial and ethnic minority groups and the dominant group in the USA significantly different from zero in the major cities?

1. Null Hypothesis (H0): Healthcare accessibility does not differ from the majority population in large metropolitan areas in the USA among racial and ethnic minorities.

1. Alternative Hypothesis (H1): The study establishes a statistically significant difference in the access to health care of racial and ethnic minorities compared with the majority population in large cities in the USA.

To what extent is the perceived discrimination in the healthcare context associated with the health status of racial/ethnic minorities?

1. Null Hypothesis (H0): There is an inverse relationship between perceived discrimination in healthcare facilities and the health status of racially and ethnically diverse populations.

1. Alternative Hypothesis (H1): The level of discrimination experienced by racial and ethnic minorities in healthcare facilities has a meaningful relationship with the health of those people.

Based on the identified problem of minorities’ health service utilization in the United States, a qualitative phenomenological study will be utilized to find the solution. This approach is chosen considering the likelihood of receiving quality answers that would reflect how these minorities approach/interact with the healthcare systems, hence answering the study’s purpose and questions.

Methodological Approach

Method: Qualitative Phenomenological Study

Evaluating the objectives of this study as the identification of the impressions, perceptions, and meanings that racial and ethnic minorities attach to the occasions they encounter in the health care system, a qualitative phenomenological research design would suffice. She later explains that phenomenology allows the researchers to gain a deep insight into the phenomenon within its contextual account through the respondents’ experience of the hashtag access barriers and how they interpret it (Hoagland et al. , 2024; Johnson, 2022).

The study will include health care institutions from the United States’ large metropolitan areas as well as other emerging cities. These geographic diversities guarantee that several experiences in several geographical sections of the healthcare context are addressed.

Target Population

Emphasis will be placed on African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and other people of color. This openness is essential to try to involve as many people as possible of varying backgrounds and genders to give voice to the issue of inequalities in healthcare.

Appropriateness and Alignment

Methodological Suitability

Phenomenology is more appropriate for this study since it focuses on the participants' interpretation of their experiences. Due to the diverse and intricate nature of healthcare disparities, phenomenology can be used to adapt and be flexible in finding out how and where minority populations experience and understand healthcare inequity (Jindal et al., 2023).

Study Goals Accomplishment

The phenomenological design is consistent with the study’s purpose of creating and explaining the difficulties experienced by racial and ethnic minorities in receiving adequate care. Widening the participants’ lens to their own experience and perception makes the study’s purpose to spur further reflections in health care leadership, management, and policy-making that can channel to improving the design of specific interventions and policies that can help to establish narrative (Yearby et al., 2022).

Optimum Choice Justification

Such design is the best because it focuses on depth rather than breadth of knowledge. Phenomenological research aims to discover the participants’ essences of meaning and experience in their cultural and social world, which is essential in studying healthcare access inequities (Perez-Stable & Webb Hopper, 2023).

Foundational Support

Data Collection Techniques:

The primary source of data collection will be administering questionnaires that will be face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. These interviews will be semi-structured and aim to obtain a detailed description of the participants’ experiences in healthcare, their obstacles, their views on the quality of care, and their coping mechanisms. The use of a record and producing actual documentation of the interviews will enhance the accuracy of the researchers when documenting participants’ views.

Data Analysis

In interviewing participants’ understanding of SRM and their experiences, thematic analysis will be used in data analysis. This systematic plan entails searching for patterns, themes, and meanings in the given dataset. To achieve the study's goals, the research plans to analyze the description gathered from the Health and Care overviews by NVivo software or similar software and categorize the data into significant concerns to understand the experiences and perception of healthcare disparities among minorities (Guo et al., 2023).

Sample Size Justification

The number of participants will be selected by reaching the data information power where no new themes are identified in the study. It should be noted that the sample size in most phenomenological studies usually varies between 15 and 20 participants. This size is sufficient to have adequate depth and data richness while making the study feasible in conducting in-depth interviews and subsequent data analysis (Duran & Perez-Stable, 2019).

References

Appendix: Annotated Bibliography