Poster Session 4, 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM: Concourse [B5]

Presenter: Melissa Guillaume

Faculty Sponsor: Amy KendrIck

School: Fitchburg State University

Research Area: Nursing

ABSTRACT

Events in the history of American healthcare where African Americans have been tested unethically and immorally such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Henrietta Lacks have contributed African Americans developing feelings of mistrust. The aim of this review is to examine the racial disparities and healthcare mistrust amongst the African American population, and develop nursing recommendations to address disparities. A literature review was completed using CINAHL, JSTOR, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar. The search terms used included, “racial disparity”, "African Americans,” or “black Americans," or “blacks,” “health outcomes,” “health disparities,” “health care inequalities,” “health outcomes,” “medical mistrust,” or “medical distrust.” Supplemental searches included the search terms “ACEs,” and “adverse childhood experiences.” The initial searches had the following inclusion criteria: published within the last five years, peer reviewed, written in the English language, and studies conducted in the United States. The filter “published in the last five years” was removed for searches in finding background and historical information related to the topic. Thirteen articles were retained for review. Structural racism, historical trauma, and adverse childhood experiences are deeply connected with medical mistrust among African Americans. Nurses play a vital role in mitigating healthcare inequities by providing culturally competent care, building a trusting relationship with their clients and approaching care with a  trauma-informed lens.