Executive Summary of Organizational Diversity Written paper
Running head: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 1
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Executive Summary of Organizational Diversity
Learner’s Name
Capella University
Organizational and System Management for Quality Outcomes
Executive Summary of Organizational Diversity
May, 2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 2
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 3
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Executive Summary of Organizational Diversity
Over the last few decades, the composition of people in the United States has diversified
significantly. In 2012, more than 37% of the American population comprised ethnic and racial
minority groups. Therefore, it is important that nursing professionals take steps to develop
cultural and linguistic competence to acknowledge and address the unique needs of this sizeable
population.
The connection between multiculturalism in nursing and health care delivery will be
explored using the example of a teaching and multispecialty hospital in a major northeastern city
in the United States. The city has undergone a considerable population shift in the past 10 years;
in view of this population shift, senior leadership has requested a nurse leader to find out if the
level of multiculturalism and diversity in the hospital reflects the city’s population and promotes
good patient outcomes. Gaps between nursing practice and the hospital’s diversity policies will
also be identified by the nurse leader, and organizational changes to improve nursing diversity
will be recommended.
The Impact of a Diverse Workforce on Patient Outcomes
Diversity in a health care organization’s nursing workforce is expressed in two ways: (a)
recruitment and retention of culturally diverse nursing professionals to reflect patient population
in terms of race, gender, and ethnicity, and (b) development of cultural and linguistic competence
in nursing professionals (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013). Cultural
competence improves patient outcomes, especially among the underrepresented ethnic and racial
groups, through culturally appropriate communication, integration of cultural beliefs into patient
care, and expanded access to services that reduce health care disparities.
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Specific patient outcomes such as quality care and patient safety are significantly
improved when nursing teams include multilingual nursing professionals capable of
communicating with non-English speaking patients (Huber, 2017). By removing language
barriers, nursing professionals are better able to understand and record a patient’s medical history
and prevent medicine administration errors. Diverse patients also feel empowered and will seek
medical treatment more often without getting intimidated or disrespected. However, it is
important to understand how the hospital integrates concepts of diversity and multiculturalism
into its practices before recommending any organizational changes.
Integration of Multiculturalism and Diversity into Organizational Practices
Health care organizations that do not follow systems theory tend to blame bad patient
outcomes on nursing professionals at the front lines of care and not on organizational factors
such as leadership (Munro & Hubbard, 2011). In the case of the multispecialty hospital, the
absence of diversity in nursing leadership has affected the way nursing professionals deliver
culturally competent care. While the hospital has taken efforts to recruit and retain doctors from
diverse backgrounds, the same has not been done for nursing professionals and nurse leaders.
Therefore, the selection process of nurse leaders should be changed to better represent diverse
patient and Nursing Professional populations. For example, the hospital should recruit more
culturally diverse nurse leaders who will be able to instill a deeper understanding of culture in
the current nursing staff.. If health care organizations have a diverse nursing workforce,
culturally competent leaders will be able to address the diverse needs of nursing professionals
through staff management policies. Such leadership will also expose structural or systemic gaps
in recruitment and retention policies that are not culturally inclusive.
Comment [A1]: Delete “also”
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 5
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Current Nursing Recruitment and Retention Policies in the Hospital
The nurse leader’s findings suggested that current strategies employed by the hospital
knowingly or unknowingly discriminate against minority groups. They do not focus on making
the existing culturally respectful policies and facilities known to potential students or new
nursing professionals. Similarly, retention policies that manage resources and facilities for
nursing professionals show a lack of culturally appropriate staff training programs, unavailability
of diverse nursing mentors for trainee nurses, absence of facilities like prayer rooms for
ethnically diverse health care professionals and patients, and inappropriate behavior and conflict
directed at nursing professionals from diverse and multicultural backgrounds.
These gaps in staff management have lowered recruitment and retention rates. Potential
ethnic and racial minority students also perceived this lack of diversity as an absence of
opportunities for professional growth. These fallouts have particularly affected how the hospital
provides best practices care to patients from ethnic and racial minority groups. Because of the
various language and cultural barriers between nursing professionals and patients, the latter often
felt that their beliefs were disrespected, and that it was difficult to access certain health care
services (Huber, 2017; Banister & Winfrey, 2012; AACN, 2015). The following cultural
integration discussion including the nurse leader’s findings will assist in understanding how
cultural competency should start at the organizational level.
Level of Cultural Integration in the Hospital and Its Importance
A study of the hospital revealed that Whites and Christians were the racial and ethnic
majorities respectively. The number of male nursing professionals was also considerably low in
comparison to female nursing professionals. Empowerment in nursing depends on the absence of
discriminatory forces in race, gender, ethnicity, and economic status. Organizational efforts to
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 6
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give culturally diverse nursing professionals more autonomy were short-lived as the changes did
not address systems factors (Rao, 2012; AACN, 2015; Huber, 2017). The organizational
hierarchy was also not culturally diverse as very few senior leaders were from ethnic and racial
minorities. Nurse leaders and nursing professionals who aspired to become senior leaders
perceived the existing hierarchical setup as culturally biased and demotivating, especially during
promotion cycles.
Recommendations for Improving Multiculturalism in the Hospital
The process of building cultural competence should be continuous and specific to
different ethnic and racial groups. By using systems theory perspectives, the organizational
structure and leadership style will become more responsive to patients’ multicultural and diverse
needs. One method for bringing about sociocultural changes in the hospital is the introduction of
guidelines that can serve as a resource for health care organizations and nursing professionals in
cultural competence.
Ten guidelines were developed by a task force of the members of the American Academy
of Nursing Expert Panel on Global Nursing and Health and Transcultural Nursing Society
(Douglas et al., 2014). The guidelines were designed to be adapted to any unique health care
delivery systems: (a) knowledge of cultures, (b) education and training in culturally competent
care, (c) critical reflection, (d) cross-cultural communication, (e) culturally competent practice,
(f) patient empowerment and advocacy, (g) cultural competence in health care systems and
organizations, (h) cross-cultural leadership (i), multicultural workforce, and (j) evidence-based
practice and research (Douglas et al., 2014). As the guidelines are also influenced by systems
theory, nurse leaders and nursing professionals will be able to apply them to current diversity
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 7
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issues. The nursing professionals will also be able to change the way organizational systems
accept multiculturalism and diversity.
Approaches to change like the cultural competence guidelines provide a structured
approach for nursing professionals to improve their skills, knowledge, and attitudes. By
considering organizational and individual performance factors, which are important concepts in
systems theory, multiculturalism and diversity will be championed as priorities in quality and
safe patient care.
Conclusion
Health care organizations have realized the strong connection between having culturally
competent nursing staff and positive patient outcomes. As a result, they have begun special
programs and reforms to become culturally competent. However, the changes to nursing
leadership and staff are not systemic because organizations do not follow a structured and
evidence-based approach like systems theory and cultural competence guidelines. Organizations
should also consider the different points of view because problems in executing reforms in one
part of the organization can affect other parts as well. These steps help nursing professionals
move beyond simply tolerating their diverse patients and colleagues and develop an in-depth
understanding of multiculturalism and diversity. Such a transition will definitely improve patient
outcomes in racially and ethnically diverse and disadvantaged groups and make health care more
inclusive.
Comment [A2]: A paragraph should be at least 3 sentences in length.
Comment [A3]: This paper was very well written and scholarly. The
criterion in the scoring guide was
thoroughly addressed. I saw many
positive things while reading this
assessment – be assured this is a
wonderful document.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY 8
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References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2013). What is cultural and linguistic
competence? Retrieved from https://ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/primary-
care/cultural-competence-mco/cultcompdef.html
Banister, G., & Winfrey, M. E. (2012). Enhancing diversity in nursing: A partnership
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Huber, D. L. (2017). Leadership and nursing care management (6th ed.). Philadelphia: W. B.
Saunders. http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nm.21.6.13.s14
Munro, E., & Hubbard, A. (2011). A systems approach to evaluating organisational change in
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Douglas, M. K., Callister, L. C., Hattar-Pollara, M., Lauderdale, J., Pacquiao, D. F.,
Rosenkoetter, M. (2014). Guidelines for implementing culturally competent nursing
care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(2), 109–
121. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1043659614520998
Rao, A. (2012). The contemporary construction of nurse empowerment. Journal of Nursing
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