Personal Bias Case Managers’ Concepts and Skills
Personal bias can be defined as an unconscious, non-intentional, and individual subjective way of showing favoritism. It is human nature to be biased. To be subjective on views, one must be influenced by experiences, friends, families, education, values, and beliefs. However, it is always easy to interact with our clients and colleagues if we can balance our values. We all have different values, and this is not wrong though when our values and biases culminate in issues, this may affect the delivery of proper services to clients or even providing the right care. There is a need for every case manager to abide by the case management ethical code of conduct and professional practicing license.
Unconscious bias or the implicit bias revolves around partiality behaviors and judgment resulting from subtle cognitive systems operating. In most cases, they work in unintentional scales and occurs in levels below an individual’s conscious awareness. In healthcare setups, implicit bias has vast-ranging impacts on healthcare expert’s interactions, treatment adherence, treatment decisions, and general patients’ health outcomes (Frankel, Gelman, & Pastor, 2018). Therefore, it essential for case managers to understand the impacts of implicit bias on the case manager’s interaction with the patient. These interactions range from preferred medical options, treatment protocols, and communication and pain management models. Implicit bias affects not only clinical decisions but also perceptions and hugely associates to treatment choices and patient-provider interaction outcomes. For example, there are various biological myths on black peoples’ skin being tougher than their white counterparts. Such narratives stand as potential aspects triggering bias decisions while recommending pain management treatments to black people by case managers embracing such beliefs.
Reference
Frankel, A. J., Gelman, S. R., & Pastor, D. K. (2018). Case management: An introduction to concepts and skills. Oxford University Press. http://dln.jaipuria.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1604/1/Case%20management%20an%20introduction%20to%20concepts%20and%20skills%20by%20Arthur%20J.%20Frankel%20Sheldon%20Gelman%20Diane%20K.%20Pastor.pdf