As a healthcare provider focused on women’s health, injustice is something that I see in my patients’ experiences daily. The reasons behind the injustice go far beyond the walls of the hospital. They are related to provider awareness and training, patient access and cultural ideals, as well as structural bias against women, specifically non-English speaking women and women of color. They exist in an entangled web, in which the compilation of multiple factors results in further bias and further distance between the actual care the patient is in need of and the care they receive. My planned future role is to be a provider in Urogynecology, and I will be starting my fellowship in July 2024. This field has a unique lens into the care of women, spanning all ages, races, ethnicities, and education levels. So many women experience incontinence and prolapse, yet so few get help and present to care. Often in the literature, there is documentation that Black and Brown women do not have these issues as frequently as White women. However, there is little acknowledgment of the role that race and culture plays in obtaining care, and how this view could be distorted given so few women feel comfortable speaking on the topic of incontinence and prolapse. This thesis investigates the possible reasons associated with either no presentation or late presentation to care for incontinence and prolapse, and questions whether the captured prevalence in the literature is the true prevalence in our population. I review the research that exists, both quantitative and qualitative, regarding care patterns, patient attitudes and cultural factors, provider knowledge and awareness, and structural factors that facilitate and hinder access to urogynecologic care. I then use an urban bioethical lens to further identify structural bias and racism within healthcare, and inform strategies that may be used to better patient knowledge and education, to allow for more comprehensive and equitable care for women within the field of urogynecology. / Urban Bioethics
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/10224 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Raffeld, Miriam |
| Contributors | Herring, Sharon |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 47 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/10186, Theses and Dissertations |
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