Background of Diversity in Nursing - Essay Example

Diversity in Nursing: A Concept Analysis Diversity in Nursing: A Concept Analysis Part I: Introduction Background of diversity in nursing In 1986, the American Nurses Association acknowledged the importance of introducing and strengthening diversity in nursing programs. This occurred when white non-Hispanics dominated nursing programs and ethnic minorities were underrepresented in the nursing student body. This system led to patient dissatisfaction with the care that the largely imbalanced nursing workforce provided. Patients from ethnic minorities, especially those that could not speak English, felt that white nurses did not understand them. Beyond the nursing educational programs, the growing number of immigrants in the United States highlighted the need for diversity in nursing. Immigration brought people from different cultures, ethnicities and races with unique medical needs from the ones that nurses were previously used to (Gooden et al., 2001). Significance It has been increasingly acknowledged that for healthcare provision to be holistically successful, it has to address the physical, psychological, and patients’ emotional needs. Therefore, diversity calls for nurses to have more than clinical skills for treating specific diseases and medical conditions. Different age groups suffer from different illnesses and conditions, while some diseases are more prevalent among some ethnic groups than in others. Diversity is therefore significant because it provides nurses with necessary knowledge for addressing patients’ needs across age, gender, ethnicity, race, and culture dimensions (Hein, 2001). Definitions of diversity According to the Webster dictionary, diversity refers to a state of having or being composed of differing elements or the inclusion of different types of people in a group or organization. In research literature, diversity is defined as the difference or uniqueness of subjects. Popular literature looks at diversity as any dimension that can be used to differentiate people. In this domain, diversity has a connotation for appreciation and respect for the differences between people such as national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, and disability. Visual image views diversity as the unique ways in which individuals conceive and perceive inner representations of their experiences. The anecdotal view of diversity is that it refers to unique unscientific observations or reports (Schim et al., 2007). Working definition For the purposes of this discussion, diversity refers to the extent to which people recognize and appreciate the differences and uniqueness amongst themselves in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, socioeconomic status and physical ability or disability. Part II: Exploration of Diversity Exemplar case On August 28, 2014, parents took their five-year-old son from Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire where the was receiving acute care due to his brain tumor. It was later found that the parents were followers of Jehovah’s Witness and they took their child from hospital because of the fear that care personnel would subject the boy to medical procedures that defy the parents’ religious beliefs. Because of the tumor, the boy was unable to move and talk and he was being fed through tubes. His feeding system was battery-powered and authorities feared that failure to return him to hospital could lead to his death and the police noted that the religious convictions of the boy’s parents were irrelevant to the medical care that the boy was receiving. This case is a statement of diversity and the impact of its understanding in the society. The boy’s life was hanging on how the involved parties would adjudicate their issues and competence in diversity in the nursing system of Hampshire would have rescued the situation. Nurses equipped with competence in diversity would have consulted with these parents, seeking to unearth their fears with care and to advise them appropriately. Perhaps, the nurses and parents would have arrived at an amicable alternative that would have helped cure the boy without defying his parent’s religious convictions (Masters, 2014). Related concepts Cultural knowledge Cultural knowledge refers to the search and gain of sound educational foundation about different cultural and ethnic groups. In nursing, cultural knowledge involves understanding the beliefs and values that a patient associates with health and health issues. This gives nurses insight into how patients interpret their illnesses and how this interpretation affects their thinking, attitudes, and behaviors. For example, many deaf people define deafness culturally and not physiologically. Cultural definition of deafness has to do with the extent and quality of a deaf person’s integration into the deaf culture such as appreciation of the sign language and taking pride in it (Smedley, Stith & Nelson, 2003). Cultural knowledge occurs in four stages namely, unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence an unconscious competence. In conscious incompetence, the nurse lacks the knowledge that their patients are culturally different from them. Nurses in conscious incompetence discover that they lack knowledge about another culture. The ones who are at conscious competence are proactive in searching for knowledge about other cultures, testing their generalizations, and identifying nursing interventions that are culturally responsive. At the epitome, unconsciously competent nurses have the capacity to offer, spontaneously, culturally responsive care to patients from different cultural backgrounds. Cultural knowledge is similar to diversity in the sense that it acknowledges and incorporates the uniqueness of patients in care. It is different from diversity in nursing in the sense that it is limited to cultural differences only (Dayer-Berenson, 2011). Gender parity This concept refers to the balance between males and females in a community or organization. Traditionally males dominated the educational, political, and economic domains but presently there have been efforts to increase women representation in all spheres of life. The global gender gap report is an instrument of benchmarking and tracking differences in gender and in nursing, gender parity features in the composition of the board of directors of healthcare organizations, nurse leaders and the general nursing workforce. Composition of an organization’s top management and leadership shows the organization’s recognition of the importance of gender balance. Women associations and groups work to ensuring that women are not discriminated against in job recruitment, selection, appointment, and promotion. The similarity between gender parity and diversity in nursing is that both acknowledge there are differences in the society. The difference between them is that diversity is broader than gender parity because it incorporates other dimensions besides gender (Gooden et al., 2001). Diversity in different social contexts and the associated values People who use wheel chairs because of disability need special sections on staircases to aid their movement in and out of a building. These people also need special equipments to aid their use of toilets. In this context, diversity touches on the values of respect and dignity. This is different in the context of an elderly person who cannot stand on a waiting queue in the hospital due to the incapacitation that comes with age. Nurses have to use the values of respect for the elderly to give priority to these elderly patients. On another level, an African American who comes seeking for treatment for his diabetes should receive specialized care compared to diabetes patients from other ethnicities. This is because research evidence has shown that diabetes is more prevalent among African Americans than in other ethnicities. Here, the value of professionalism is implored. Overall, diversity should be managed carefully in order not to justify or entrench unfairness and favoritism (Barbee & Gibson, 2001). Part III: Summary Diversity in nursing helps in empathizing with people along different dimensions. In regards to nursing studentship, diversity seeks to have a nursing student body that is representative of the unique qualities. In nursing practice, diversity helps nurses to go beyond the medical needs of the patient to address their psychological and emotional needs too. Cultural knowledge and gender parity are concepts related to diversity. Diversity touches different values in different social contexts. References Barbee, E. & Gibson, S. (2001). Our dismal progress: The recruitment of non-whites into nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 40:243–245. Dayer-Berenson, L. (2011). Cultural competencies for nurses: Impact on health and illness. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Gooden, M., Porter, C., Gonzalez, R. & Mims, B. (2001). Rethinking the relationship between nursing and diversity. American Journal of Nursing, 101:63–65. Hein, E. C. (2001). Nursing issues in the 21st century: Perspectives from the literature. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Masters, K. (2014). Role development in professional nursing practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Schim, M., Doorenbos, A., Benkert, R. & Miller, J. (2007). Culturally congruent care: Putting the puzzle together. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 18:103–110. Smedley, B., Stith, A. & Nelson, A. (2003). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Read More