Trust and Cultural Competence: Minority Healthcare Clinician’s Impact on Patient Relationships

Despite various efforts to increase equity in the healthcare system, minority groups in the United States continue to experience severe disparities in healthcare delivery due to long-lasting trauma and unconscious bias. These conditions have led to poorer health outcomes and heightened suspicion of medical facilities, particularly in Black and Hispanic populations. Healthcare professionals of color are in a unique position to restore trust and establish respectful, pertinent connections with their patients. They can frequently empathize with patients’ thoughts and struggles, yet institutional cultures that support majoritarian norms sometimes resist these efforts. This qualitative phenomenology study explored how healthcare workers of color manage culturally affiliated barriers to improve the health of patients of color. The study examined the experiences and views of 14 healthcare clinicians of color regarding how to build trust with racially and culturally concordant patients. With a focus on the lived experiences of these healthcare clinicians, the results are intended not only to inform policies and practices that support the development of culturally competent healthcare professionals, but also to highlight inequities that persist in the healthcare system.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education, Leadership, and Organization

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Forozan, Jasmine Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• McMahan, Sara

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ausburn, Jerry
• Flanagan, Jennifer
• Keeley, Randa

• Cultural competency
• Health equity
• Minority clinician

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11274/17431

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/17431