About Equal Health
The right to health is one of a set of internationally agreed human rights standards, and is inseparable or 'indivisible' from these other rights. However over the last years, gender inequity and gender bias in healthcare has been widely proven and studied.
The EqualHealth project therefore works to adopt current VET curriculum to the modern societal needs and the basic human rights for women to have equal access to quality health as men.
The goal
The project aims at providing healthcare professionals (nursing & midwifery professionals- ESCO 2221 & 2222) with a new, innovative and accessible learning opportunity on gender equality. More specifically, the project’s objectives are:
- To support innovation in VET by offering a new specialization in gender equality in healthcare,
- To upskill healthcare professionals,
- To raise awareness on the importance of gender awareness training for healthcare professionals,
- To make VET more relevant to the modern healthcare provision needs,
- To provide the necessary guidance and methodology framework for VET trainers to adjust their courses and curricula to gender equality rules.
The objective of the project is to adopt current VET curriculum to the modern societal needs and the basic human rights for women to have equal access to quality health as men.
For whom
The target groups of the project are VET institutions and VET trainers who are going to be taught about gender bias in health care provision and how they can develop courses in verse 30 programmes that deal and raise awareness on this issue.
Another target group of the project or health care professionals coming out of the VET educational path who are going to raise their awareness on gender bias and therefore offer a more holistic service to their patients irrespective of their gender.
Why
Women are often misdiagnosed and treated with gender bias in healthcare. Research suggests that even in the most progressive member states in terms of gender equality such as Denmark and Norway, healthcare professionals still treat women poorly compared to men. This is mostly because of subconsious stereotypes and the education that healthcare professionals receive in their training.
Both gender eguity and gender bias are phenomenas that are apparent in healthcare services. Research has proven that women die consistently from cardiovascular disease at a higher rate than men, even though both genders respond to treatment the same way. Therefore, it’s safe to assume the increased danger for women lies in the response to their heart attacks, not in the heart attacks themselves.