The nursing population tends to increase in diversity, prioritizing the need to encourage inclusion and equity. To ensure that nurses can provide effective care, it is critical to establish an environment that welcomes differences and considers them as resources. First, it is necessary to define diversity within a certain community of the nursing workforce. Namely, it is important to clarify the expected outcomes of promoting diversity, formulating them clearly and understandably (Mason et al., 2020). Education of the nursing personnel contributes to building awareness among nurses, which can be achieved during group discussions, nurturing difficult conversations, and addressing prejudices against diversity. Recruiting nurses should include clarifying the terms of inclusion to engage them in the established environment. The nursing workforce should be multinational, which implies recruiting minorities in nursing programs. One of the examples is recruiting the LGBTQ+ community members and developing the relationships between them and other nurses.
Those with privilege should be encouraged to help others become active members of a team. At the same time, those who lack privilege can be given more opportunities to get involved with community outreach (Villarruel et al., 2015). For example, many Spanish and Asian patients with poor English language knowledge struggle to understand their treatment details. In this case, nurses from similar ethnic/racial backgrounds can be assigned to these patients to prevent misunderstanding. Such an approach allows for promoting better interaction in the team and leads to positive patient outcomes. Among other barriers that would potentially be addressed by means of the diverse and inclusive nursing workforce, there is patients’ lack of health literacy and poor access to health care.
References
Mason, D. J., Gardner, D. B., Outlaw, F. H., & O’Grady, E. T. (2020). Policy & politics in nursing and health care (8th ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences.
Villarruel, A., Washington, D., Lecher, W. T., & Carver, N. A. (2015). A more diverse nursing workforce. The American Journal of Nursing, 115(5), 57-62.