VCU news

By Anne Dreyfuss
C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research

In order to provide optimum care, health professionals must make an effort to understand their patients’ cultural and religious backgrounds, VCU Health pharmacist Farrah Haddad, Pharm.D., told a room of about 40 students, faculty and staff last week as part of the HumanCare Lecture Series.

The five-part co-curricular HumanCare course explores topics of diversity, leadership and inclusion specific to health care providers. Student Initiatives and Inclusion and the Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences administer the course.

“The basis of the HumanCare class is to teach students how to look past their biases to ensure that, as future health care practitioners, they give equitable health care access to their patients despite their perceived differences,” lecturer-in-residence Yewande Austin said.

During her lecture on the Virginia Commonwealth University MCV campus, Haddad discussed the importance of creating a respectful dialogue with patients about their beliefs and provided evidence that demonstrated how doing so can enhance patient outcomes, especially for religious minorities. Haddad also spoke candidly about how her identity as an Iraqi Muslim informs her work as a pharmacist at VCU Health.

Having access to health care is everybody’s right and the care must be given with respect to cultural differences, religious differences and across ethnic groups.

“Having access to health care is everybody’s right and the care must be given with respect to cultural differences, religious differences and across ethnic groups,” Haddad said, adding that understanding different cultural beliefs, especially those of religious minorities, is often overlooked and poorly understood in the health care industry.

A National Institutes of Health study that surveyed doctors and patients about their thoughts on religion found that more than 70 percent of patients felt that doctors should ask questions about their spiritual needs, while more than 30 percent wanted more discussion about their religious beliefs. However, only 5 percent of physicians reported actually initiating that conversation.

“Religion is definitely a blind spot that most of us have in terms of recognizing diversity among our patients,” said Benjamin Van Tassell, Pharm.D. The VCU School of Pharmacy associate professor attended the lecture to increase his understanding of the ways religion can affect health care delivery. “Religion isn’t on my checklist of things that I think about when I have a new patient, but this is a good reminder to ask if the patient has any religious practices that they would like to discuss.”

In addition to providing a broad perspective on the benefits of religious competency, Haddad shared personal stories from her experience as a Muslim patient. Using her anecdotal experiences as context, Haddad detailed key considerations when treating people of the Muslim faith, such as the importance of spiritual cleanliness and the family’s role in decision-making.

Second-year pharmacy student Nooria Razai, who is enrolled in the HumanCare course, said that as a Muslim she already knew many of the topics Haddad covered related to Muslim health care needs, but she had not previously connected them to her studies.

“Dr. Haddad’s lecture was very relevant, especially for me as a soon-to-be practicing health care professional,” Razai said. “It is important that we are culturally and religiously aware of certain needs, not only for Muslims, but for all of the religions.”    

 

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