Kindness and inclusivity by clinicians have a bigger impact than some may believe, say researchers at Western University and the University of British Columbia. A new study, published in The Milbank Quarterly, a journal for population health and health policy, shows a clear link between an equity-oriented health-care approach (e.g. welcoming and inclusive behaviour between patients and clinic staff) and better health outcomes in marginalized or impoverished patients. RN Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, the study’s co-author and a professor at Western’s Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, says the study is about paying attention to the way we interact with people. 
“It makes health-care providers think differently when they adopt this approach,” she says. “It sounds very simple, but in a busy health-care environment, when there’s time pressure and other things, sometimes those really fundamental things get put to the side.” The study assessed patients over a 24-month period at four clinics – two in B.C., one in London, and another in Lambton County. (The London Free Press, Dec. 19)