In: Nursing
What are the implications of diversity in healthcare on the future?
Ans) Diversity in healthcare is important because it allows nurses and other healthcare professionals to provide better care for their patients because they are able to relate to them. Diversity in nursing or healthcare includes: gender, veteran status, status, race, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and more.
- The benefits of increased diversity and cultural understanding within healthcare organizations are significant, and directly impact patient outcomes. Increased diversity and cultural understanding not only increases patient satisfaction and HCAHPS scores, but also increases innovation.
- Increased diversity of the health care workforce can lead to improved satisfaction for racial and ethnic minority patients. Patients who are treated by physicians of their own racial or ethnic background are more likely to report receiving higher quality care.
- According to the IOM report, increasing ethnic/racial diversity among health care professionals is important because diversity is associated with improved access to care for ethnic/racial minorities, greater patient choice and satisfaction, better patient-clinician communication, and improved educational experiences.