This research explores how the values of front-line health care providers in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) affect the delivery of health care to female veterans. The VA recently required that all of its medical facilities expand health care services to female veterans and simultaneously provide a more private environment for women seeking care in its hospitals and clinics. Compliance is uneven across the 140+ VA medical facilities in the United States and this project explores the impact that female physicians have on moving their facilities towards compliance.
The objective of the project is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the conditions under which female physicians use their discretion to implement policy to improve the health care experiences of female veterans. The PI will conduct interviews of Veterans Health Administration employees in two select facilities to gauge their attitudes toward compliance, their commitment to the policy, and their efforts to better serve the most quickly growing segment of the VA's clientele. The PI expects that female physicians who identify with female veterans will do the most to improve the quality of care for these women.
Intellectual Merit: Although scholarship suggests that female bureaucrats are more likely than their male colleagues to deliver policy benefits to women in the population, virtually no research directly engages or interviews these women to reach such conclusions. This project forges new ground by interviewing front-line health care providers to gauge their efforts to improve the health care experiences of female veterans. It employs a new theoretical construct for better understanding the ways in which gender shapes the implementation of public policy. The proposed interviews will greatly expand our understanding of the role women play in delivering public policy that benefits women.
Broader Impacts: As a Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) project, the research provides training opportunities for students. The project also has policy implications; the findings may inform the VA about ways to improve the health care experience for female veterans.
