Introduction
Diversity is a term that is often used to differentiate groups and people from each other. It explains the individual differences that include age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin, and educational background. Diversity allows for the understanding of these differences in a nurturing environment, which means understanding one another regardless of the variances. As such, people learn to celebrate the rich cultural dimensions contain with each person and place a positive value on diversity in a community and workplace. In health care, diversity has many advantages, such as increased innovation and improved care amidst barriers such as media exposure and poor education, which hinder diversity.
A diverse health workforce has an array of benefits in health facilities. According to Rine (2017), gender-diverse companies are moiré likely to outperform those in the lowest quartile of diversity by over 15 times. Similarly, ethnically diverse health workforces outperform other less various institutions by 30 percent (Rine, 2017). First, when a health workforce consists of people from different cultures, an institution welcomes new ideas and innovations, which ate the basis for success. Secondly, a diverse health workforce proves to be more adaptable and acceptable to other people. Thus, this means that in health facilities, a diverse workforce can provide health services to patients without any biases based on race, religions, and other bases for discrimination. The third benefit is that a diverse health workforce comprises of people who can speak different languages. Therefore, it becomes easier for such a workplace to attend to various patients who speak different languages and belong to a different culture.
Regardless of the innumerable benefits of diversity in the health sector, diversity has not been fully actualized due to the existence of barriers. One of the barriers to diversity in nursing is media exposure. The media does not expose the difference in the nursing profession. In effect, this discourages the minority students from studying nursing under the presumption that it is not a career for them. The second barrier is the lack of education that would enable minority students to undertake the nursing career. Importantly, the rate of discrimination in America and other white-dominant nations make education access daunting. Most of the minority students in America still face immense difficulties in accessing education. Although some have managed to complete their secondary and high school education, affording higher institution fees remains a challenge. Therefore, opportunities to study nursing do not favor minority students in America. The third barrier is related to interests in math and science. Although the minority groups may have the chance to access education, the quality of education attained may be wanting. As such, their performance in math and science, which are critical subjects required for one to study nursing, makes them ineligible to consider nursing as a career. From this, one can see that poor quality of education, difficulties in accessing education, and media exposure are some of the barriers hindering sufficient diversity in the nursing profession.
Accordingly, the American Caucasian background affects nursing practices significantly. Health disparities and disease incidences vary based on race and ethnic backgrounds. American Caucasians have racial knowledge on how one’s race makes some individuals susceptible to various diseases. For instance, the African American population is prone to type 2 diabetes. American Caucasian background keeps on the use of race-based screening guidelines as a means of ending health disparities and disease incidences facing some populations. The use of race as a clinical guideline emanates fie to the differential levels of racial self-awareness among the American Caucasians. According to Roth and Ivemark (2018), a linear relationship exists between nursing degree and nursing education. Race often serves as a foundation of knowledge on genetic history and ancestry. Understanding genetic ancestry is essential in guiding clinical decision making. As Roth and Ivemark (2018) indicated, genetic ancestry could allow nurses to use race desirably in clinical care by fostering the integration of demographic characteristics ion clinical decisions, which is an essential nursing component. Registered nurses from the American Caucasian background provide care for the diverse race and ethnic populations. The nurses stand at the front line of nursing care and avoid any forms of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare delivery. Instead, they use these variances to improve healthcare processes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, diversity is essential in health services and entails the differences among people that include racial, religious, and cultural variations. Such differences are critical to enhancing the effective delivery of care in health sectors. The benefits of diversity in health facilities are that it increases innovation and new practices. More so, it allows for integrated and inclusive delivery of health practices, which, in turn, benefits the health of the community. However, different barriers, such as media exposure, lack of education access, and poor quality education, remain a challenge to most minority groups. Thus, diversity in healthcare is unattainable in nations such as America. Lastly, people from the American Caucasian background influence the process of delivery of health care positively, as discussed, the American Caucasian nurses are familiar with genetic ancestry. In effect, such people often make health and nursing decisions based on racial factors that predispose a person to specific ailments. The conclusion derived from this analysis is that diversity has a significant effect on improving the delivery of health services.
