- Back to Course Home
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
The topic of infertility has increasingly been evolving from being considered a private issue to a more public medical topic. This course will provide an overview of the cultural context of infertility. Intertwined in this will be discussion of how women and children are viewed by different cultures and cultural meanings of infertility. Regardless of the sociocultural background of a couple experiencing infertility, it can be emotionally draining and can add strain to the marital relationship. Many infertile couples go through a grieving process as they wrestle with the loss of a dream to have a child, to be a parent, and/or their ideal future. Others experience significant stigma, what some have termed an "invisible shame." The course will also discuss the intersection of culture in coping and help-seeking patterns. Finally, culturally sensitive practice and intervention guidelines are offered.
- INTRODUCTION
- DEFINITIONS
- SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
- CULTURE, RACE, AND ETHNICITY
- THE INCREASINGLY DIVERSE LANDSCAPE IN THE UNITED STATES
- MEDICALIZATION OF INFERTILITY
- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF INFERTILITY, WOMANHOOD, AND FAMILY
- SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT OF INFERTILITY
- PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF INFERTILITY
- COPING PATTERNS
- INFERTILITY TREATMENT: ATTITUDES AND USE
- BEST PRACTICES WHEN WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS AND COUPLES WITH INFERTILITY
- CONCLUSION
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for social workers, therapists, mental health counselors, nurses, and other members of the interprofessional team who work with couples from diverse racial and ethnic minority groups who are experiencing infertility.
Given the ever-increasing multicultural diversity in the landscape of the United States, the provision of culturally competent and sensitive practice is vital. The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of how culture influences how individuals view children, fertility, and the causes of infertility and how couples seek help and cope with the challenges of infertility. By increasing their knowledge in this area, practitioners can develop greater cultural sensitivity, promote rapport and trust among practitioners and clients, and reduce the possibility of early termination of services.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Define infertility and other terms associated with infertility.
- Discuss the scope of infertility among women in the United States and worldwide.
- Identify culture, race, and ethnicity, and outline demographic trends of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
- Explain the medicalization of infertility.
- Describe the cultural values of womanhood, family, and having children and how this affects the social construction of infertility.
- Discuss how various cultural groups ascribe meaning to infertility and fertility.
- Describe different help-seeking patterns in response to infertility.
- Identify psychologic and social consequences of infertility and how culture influences coping patterns.
- Evaluate racial and ethnic disparities in infertility treatment.
- Discuss best practice guidelines for assessments and interventions for couples who are experiencing infertility.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, received her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University, School of Social Work. She has clinical experience in mental health in correctional settings, psychiatric hospitals, and community health centers. In 1997, she received her PhD from UCLA, School of Public Policy and Social Research. Dr. Yick Flanagan completed a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Hunter College, School of Social Work in 1999. In that year she taught the course Research Methods and Violence Against Women to Masters degree students, as well as conducting qualitative research studies on death and dying in Chinese American families.
Previously acting as a faculty member at Capella University and Northcentral University, Dr. Yick Flanagan is currently a contributing faculty member at Walden University, School of Social Work, and a dissertation chair at Grand Canyon University, College of Doctoral Studies, working with Industrial Organizational Psychology doctoral students. She also serves as a consultant/subject matter expert for the New York City Board of Education and publishing companies for online curriculum development, developing practice MCAT questions in the area of psychology and sociology. Her research focus is on the area of culture and mental health in ethnic minority communities.
Contributing faculty, Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Jane C. Norman, RN, MSN, CNE, PhD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
Supported browsers for Windows include Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Supported browsers for Macintosh include Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers that include complete implementations of ECMAScript edition 3 and CSS 2.0 may work, but are not supported. Supported browsers must utilize the TLS encryption protocol v1.1 or v1.2 in order to connect to pages that require a secured HTTPS connection. TLS v1.0 is not supported.
The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.