You mention how our diverse cultural, social, and economical backgrounds shape our beliefs and perceptions about health and our tolerance of others. This is a good point to address as sometimes nurses’ beliefs and values influence their nursing practice. It can sometimes contribute to health disparities too. Eliminating health disparities is ranked by the National Institute of Health as the third top priority health issue. Health disparities have been highlighted in both the Health People 2000 and 2010.
It is important that health professionals, such as nurses understand how biases can contribute to health disparities. It is not always intentional biases but as you stated, sometimes a nurse may make an assumption about