Nursing 3005/Diversity Essay

1130 Words5 Pages
Diversity in the Workplace
Christine A. Joynes
Walden University
NURS 3000 Section 14, Issues and Trends in Nursing
November 3, 2013

Diversity in the Workplace
Nurses are responsible for providing culturally competent and sensitive care to a very diverse population. It is for that reason that it is important to have a diverse population of nurses available to provide quality care and to assist their colleagues in learning about the different needs of other cultures and communities. The purpose of this paper is to look at some reasons why diversity in the workplace is important. It will also focus in particular on the issues related to gender diversity.
Importance of Diversity in the Workplace
Diversity in the workplace is important for many reasons. Our country is a melting pot of people that are comprised of various ethnicities, ages and religions. As such, our nursing population must be prepared to provide culturally, developmentally and physically competent care to each patient with whom they interact. Unfortunately the current nursing population is primarily female, Caucasian, and middle aged (Hutson, 2014). This offers a limited resource of knowledge with regard to other cultural needs and beliefs. Increasing the diversity of the nursing community offers both the potential opportunity for patients to be cared for by a nurse who knows or understands their specific beliefs and needs, but also the ability for nurses to share their knowledge with colleagues to increase cultural sensitivity and knowledge across the profession (Douglas, et al, 2009).
Evaluating Gender Diversity Diversity in the workplace is not limited to race, religion or age. Another important factor to consider when ensuring quality patient care is gender. As mentioned previously, the majority of professional nurses are Caucasian, female and middle aged. For optimal
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