Diversity in the nursing personnel is vitally required to satisfy the medical needs of the rising diverse population (Degazon & Mancha, 2012). The recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority nursing students are significant elements of the process though they are faced with tremendous challenges. Possibly, the lack of fairness with respect to quality medical provision is the most convincing explanation for augmenting the level of minority nurses. Discrimination acts as one of the hindrances to augmenting the number of minority nurses. Studies affirm the view that staff members have a negative preconception toward minority learners. The evident discrimination faced by minority nurses is terrible, excruciating, and recurrent. For instance, African American learns find their surroundings hostile and nonsupportive since they are at times demanded to excel ten times more than the normal qualification and appear more elegant. Moreover, other minority students are misconstrued by their colleagues and faculty, overawed, and negatively considered lazy or dense.
Minority nursing students state that they encounter a combing out practice where faculty members target them for failure. This practice is typified by the identification of their educational and clinical weak points and posing questions that target the weaknesses. This is persistently done until the time that the students choose to defer their learning or are expelled. To eradicate this barrier, medical superintendents in all hospitals and nurse managers both in nursing schools and hospitals should first encourage all minority nurses and students to report cases of discrimination. They should establish diversity recruitment, counseling, and support groups and ensure that the interests of the minority are addressed. Through the increment of recruitment and facilitation of retention and the level of graduation of minority nursing learners, nursing curriculums could augment the number of minority nurses (Degazon & Mancha, 2012). Nurse Managers should highlight the laws against discrimination and pin notices on the notice boards strictly affirming that discrimination is intolerable. Moreover, punishments for any culprit should be indicated, and all nursing staff members should be educated on the avoidance of discrimination.
Rather than a legislative mandate, some interesting alternatives have been established. For instance, the staffing systems could be endorsed with demands of openly posting the ratios of their nursing staff such as the Licensed Practical Nurses, Registered Nurses, and Certified Nursing Assistants. The posting of nursing staff ratios offer consumers the details they require to select a health institution and put pressure on medical facilities to hire sufficient nursing staff (Shekelle, 2013). This is because hospitals executives have opted to reduce nursing staff as a way of cutting costs since the payment of nurses comprises nearly half of their operating financial plans. Currently, the demands for adequate nursing staff keep rising, and evidently publicized reports will ensure sufficient nurses to guarantee patient safety and quality care.
Knowledgeable consumers will have a good platform for arriving at better choices that influence their medical care (Shekelle, 2013). Furthermore, posting of the nurse-to-patient ratios will compel health institutions to execute enticing ratios to attain a competitive benefit. For instance, since health institutions will strive to portray themselves as being mindful of the quality care of the patients, they will feel coerced to ensure adequate staffing. Devoid of legally demanding a ratio, hospitals will be motivated to maintain adequate staffing of their departments. The improvement of nursing staff ratios has been proven favorable to health professionals and patients. On this note, the health institutions that ensure the benefit of the two groups realize enhanced success.
References
Degazon, C. E., & Mancha, C. (2012). Changing the face of nursing: Reducing ethnic and racial disparities in health. Family & community health, 35(1), 5-14.
Shekelle, P. G. (2013). Nurse–patient ratios as a patient safety strategy: A systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 158(5), 404-409.