Diversity in the Nursing Workforce - Research Paper

Introduction

The US has become extensively diverse over the past years yet the nursing workforce was predominantly made up of white females (Villarruel, Washington, Lecher, & Carver, 2015). To enhance the quality of health care and eliminate health disparities, a nursing workforce should be more diverse in terms of gender, racial background, as well as ethnicity among others. It serves to reduce the disparities gaps which hinder healthcare provision. Besides, diversity facilitates preparation of a diverse nursing discipline that is embraced in order to promote accessibility to quality patient-oriented care in the health settings where health practitioners contribute as pertinent stakeholders to attain success.

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In the 20th century, America women almost entirely were the only nurses and they were from lower to middle-class level and most were unmarried but educated (Villarruel et al., 2015). After this century, the career option became more recognized and accepted which saw a great increase in the number of mostly women enrolled in schools studying nursing. Presently, the healthcare diversity does not replicate the diverse outlook of the patients. The number of women who pursue nursing also overwhelm the number of male nurses at close to ten to one. The stereotype and slow to change white woman nurse have been undisputed for quite along. This paper highlights diversity in the nursing workforce taking into account the factors which constitute to diversity, challenges to achieving the diversity, recommendations towards achieving diversity.

Importance of Diversity in Nursing

Diversity in nursing is quite indispensable since it offers the opportunities to administer eminent care to the patients. Correspondence with patients can be enhanced a great deal and care improved when healthcare workers bridge the gap between the beliefs, the culture of medicine and the patient's values framework. When the taskforces reflect the demographics of the patients, communication becomes easier and it makes them feel comfortable with the services offered at the facility. It implies that an individual who has less common attributes with another may not sufficiently advocate for their welfares. Research indicates that ethnic minorities are probable to assist the understated groups compared to the white colleagues. It helps reduce the disparities that exist in a healthcare setting (Phillips & Malone, 2014). If patients are given the autonomy to select a nurse, they are probably inclined to individuals from their own racial background.

A nurse who has a comprehension of patients' cultural background, faith and religious perspectives, food, among others can focus on the patient's specific needs and connect in a special way with them. The healthcare encounters are meant to offer an opportunity to influence the health of a patient in a beneficial manner. The task force can utilize this avenue to maximize their knowledge of patients' cultures. As such, they would engage in cultural sensitivity and competency approach for effective healthcare purpose. The dynamics of the demographics and healthcare system require consistent recruiting of competent nurses from different backgrounds which depict the varying patient population. These healthcare systems which upholds representations are more concerned about patients' values. The nurses form a strong framework of bonds with each other which builds their working relationships. There is a reduced language barrier in education and in practice. Increasing the number of minority groups for instance of the Latinos help ameliorate cultural challenges and language implications for those who recently moved to the US.

Inclusion and diversity are recipes for bringing together different ideologies which foster effective collaboration, participation, innovation and creativity that influences the satisfaction of patients. The various cultural groups which are inclusive of but not limited to the homosexual groups, persons living with disabilities, the ethnic minorities, sometimes are underserved for various reasons (Evans, 2018). Inadequate inclusivity approach is one major reason for their challenges in an attempt to access healthcare.

Nurses and other healthcare professionals benefit from a diverse taskforce. When diversity is embraced in a work environment, all the nurses are guaranteed fair treatment and job appraisals among other employment benefits. These benefits are distributed among the diverse workforce without discrimination but based on an individual's capacity to deliver services and health care to patients. Furthermore, nurses can also seek support from their colleagues in the form of job particulars as well as on a personal level. The workforce can comprehensively evaluate and offer a diagnosis to patients, and it leads to a stratified learning environment where inequalities are treated as strengths.

Administrative Strategies for Establishing A Diverse Nursing Workforce

The nursing career is a fulfilling lifetime work which many individuals choose to work in progressive healthcare systems which respect diversity. It is a responsibility for every healthcare system to strive for competence as well as a diversified taskforce to attain optimal healthcare. However, every nurse has a responsibility to advocate for diversified taskforce which promotes equality and cultural expertise and institutional excellence.

Firstly, organizations and governments should show commitments towards hiring minority health care expertise. According to Xue and Brewer (2014), the gap in racial minority representation between the populace and the RN taskforce has been consistent and has tremendously widened over the past years. This gap has been contributed by the underrepresentation of the African Americans and Hispanics which was differently posited in various states (Xue & Brewer, 2014). Extensive support approaches should be based on the underrepresented groups as well as the targeted regions/states to increase the minority nurses.

Besides, there is a need to create and strengthen minority leadership initiatives which promote the minority taskforce. These initiatives can be policy-based approaches, educational programs, federal and governmental levels among others. For example, creating an inclusive academic environment which focuses on enrolment, retention, and graduation of diversified students would serve to eliminate diversity issues in nursing (Murray, Pole, Ciarlo, & Holmes, 2016). The Association of American Colleges and Universities (2015), emphasizes that higher education should consistently utilize inclusive distinction as a tactical framework to regularly review and assess organizational policies and practices. It entails all forms of ideas, procedures, and challenges which are linked to inclusion and diversity which rise beyond discussions to guide the organizational transformation.

It is essential that all institutional leaders to establish learning settings which diverse resources, learners, and staff can progress and the learners should be prepared to embrace different people in a culturally receptive channel. The nursing programs should factor initiatives which correct the intentional and unintentional prejudices which encourage micro-inequities which limit attainment of diversified nursing programs.

Tentatively, healthcare institution requires to establish community and patient feedback avenue to help in improving and sustaining quality service delivery. Genuine feedback increases emphasis on quality and increased innovative strategies to integrate new ideas from different sources as well as new performance measures. With this strategy, many healthcare institutions can expound on their strengths whereas setting new outcomes and broadly impact the community.

Progress in Building Diverse Nursing Workforce

According to Villarruel et al. (2015), in the year 1995, the increase in the proportion of nurses from the minority groups showed barely 15% increase. In the recent years, the growth has been highlighted to be over twenty percent. Besides, the number of men increased from 10% to approximately 11% in the year 2010 and 2013 respectively. Men from minority groups in nursing are quite a few compared to the women. About 25% of male registered nurses are nonwhites in comparison to approximately 20% of females registered nurses, which underlines the necessity to emphasize on ethnic diversity and gender perspective in nursing (Villarruel et al., 2015).

The diversity of the nursing taskforce is still an issue of interest since it has not been attained as recommendable. In the US, individuals from the minority communities account for over 40% (one-third) of the total populace. It is projected that by 2043, the US will be considered a minority and majority nation which implies that the number of whites will constitute less than half of the total population. The diversity of nursing taskforce does not diversify at the same progress and it is necessary to accelerate the progress.

The Future of Nursing document highlighted the call for transformation through well-stipulated strategies to impact diversity. One recommendation was to upsurge the number of nurses with a bachelor of science in nursing to about 90% by 2022. These strategies exuded diversity in regards to geographic distribution, gender, and ethnicity (Villarruel et al., 2015). Academic leaders are, therefore, required to recruit and retain nursing students from various backgrounds (Murray et al., 2016). Additionally, the report adds onto the aspect of graduate students to be doubled to increase the funding approaches by number and by diversity.

Correspondingly, since the publication of the ANA report and adoption of the Campaign for Action, various learning institutions have increased efforts on diversification of bachelor student nursing graduates with their enrollment and retention initiatives (Melillo, Dowling, J., Abdallah, Findeisen, & Knight, 2014). However, this effort is inadequate to cope with the dynamics of the country's demographics. Across the nation, the total number of the minority students still constitutes of slightly more than 32% of the total student population. The men make up approximately 12% of the graduate nursing students and baccalaureate (Villarruel et al., 2015).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics postulates that in the next six years there would be more than 1.5 million job opportunities for the registered nurses (Ross, 2016). Close to half of the nursing population is aged fifty and older, and a substantial number is anticipated to retire over the next few years. Therefore, a new task force has been projected to increase primarily from the underrepresented communities (Ross, 2016). This presents a solution to the absence of a culturally knowledgeable healthcare taskforce in the next decade.

Role of Nurse Leaders

In as much as there are local-based institutions, regional organizations and national initiatives devoted towards promoting a more diverse nursing taskforce, there are various approaches through which nurse leaders can purposefully contribute towards facilitating diversity in the organizations, locally, regionally and at the regional level. Firstly, can aid their employers to develop flexible part-time opportunities and proper scheduling are favorable to the workforce. It promotes work dedication by individuals as well as accommodative and enabling work environment to the individual means of various minority nurses.

Nurses in leadership positions can also proactively encourage the development of organizational climate and culture that cares for diversity. Furthermore, institutions which portray effectiveness in social collaboration, work flexibility, just implementation of promotions, and equal engagement are usually more posit...