Diversity In The Dental Profession

As we enter the new millenium, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Businesses and organizations are living up to the great melting pot image the United States has always been popular for. Employees now reflect a diversity of cultural perspectives, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, physical abilities, and levels of education. This wave of multiculturalism is here to stay and cannot be ignored. It is in need of attention in order to uphold the well-being and success of businesses and organizations all over the country.

One of the major groups of people who can make this happen is the hospital staff. They have been accustomed to “going with the flow” and not necessarily informing its’ patients on upcoming dilemmas or situations that can be preventable within their facility. With the nonwhite population of the United States steadily growing increasing the number of physicians who are of various ethnicities could potentially decrease some disparities. Physicians who are nonwhite provide a “disproportionate share of care to underserved populations” ((Marrast, Zallman, Woolhandler, Bor, & McCormick, 2014). With more physicians of color providing care to people of the same ethnicity a level of trust should be reached thus improving patients care practices at home.

I have learned that it is important that educators  and health providers be trained on cultural competency to understand the population they are serving. Marks, Sims, and Osher (King, Sims, & Osher, n.d.) define cultural competency  as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations" ( as cited in Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991). Health providers and educators should investigate demographic patterns or trends in the place where they live and work. This brings awareness of the types of cultures that they might come across when they are working with people. Organizations should integrate and implement policies that promote the value of  diversity, self-assessment, manage the dynamics of difference, acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of communities they serve (Georgetown  University, 2004). Georgetown University (2004) also stresses that culture competency grows gradually and is always open for improvement.

As an adult dental healthcare educator interested in working in instruction or the administration of formal education, this artifact allowed me to address the challenges associated with diversity issues. I realize that an integrative theoretical base and knowledge of current research makes diversity leadership strategies stronger.

Have you ever been to the doctor and don't quite understand what the provider is telling you, or are you a healthcare worker and you don't understand your patients? Should the healthcare provider get diversity training or should they maybe learn new languages? More than ever before, healthcare professionals are subjected to dealing with a number of immense and different cultural diversities. While diversity is often a term used to refer specifically to cultural differences, diversity applies to all the qualities that make people different. Diversity requires more than knowing about individual differences and it key for overcoming cross-cultural barriers in healthcare.

A reformation of the achievement levels of African-Americans starts through the investment of high achieving mentors, families, and friends. It begins with African-Americans straying away from statistical choices, such as placing improper value on education, community involvement, and health. The overcoming of such adversities involved with being an African-American woman has propelled my career goals. By striving to become a pharmacist and non-profit leader I am showing that the accomplishments of African-American women in health and leadership are not abnormal. One of the major causes of minority health disparities is the lack of minority health providers. As a healthcare provider, I will be better able to promote wellness in minority populations.

As a nurse aide working in a hospital, there are multiple instances where privilege and differences in power affect the way I, and those around me, engage with patients. For the privilege memo, I wish to discuss how my own personal benefits of being a white person affect the patients I work with as well as other minorities. For the community profile, I plan to take a deeper look into the black community, if possible specifically Somalian Americans. There are numerous new Somalian Americans in the Fargo community that I have encountered before both in and out of the health care systems. Delving into their experiences with health care in the America will aide my attempt to educate myself about minorities in health care environments both nationally and

Healthcare diversities among healthcare professionals have been a challenge within the healthcare system. There are various publications that state that the underrepresented minorities have a higher chance of not graduating medical school, accruing high student loans, and ultimately were unsatisfied with their jobs (Pololi et al., 2013). This is not only disturbing, but this represents the individuals who are or will be servicing the public on a daily basis. As the population increases, racial differences increase, so to combat these disparities cultural competencies have to come into play within the health-professions workforce. For instance, although African Americans constitute to 13% of the population, in the physician workforce they only account for 4%, also women who are part of the workforce outweigh the amount of men by at least 4%, respectively (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Coincidentally, whites make up to 49% (both men and women) of the total U.S. MD active physicians based on the labor workforce statistics of 2013.

We live in a very diverse nation and overcoming challenges related to cultural beliefs and preferences is a very common obstacle for health care workers today. In an article in The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing cultural diversity is defined as being more than just race,

This research is being submitted on September 16, 2010, for Vicky Philips English class at Rasmussen College by Carl Hooks

The facility that I work for has seen a shift in demographics since the erection of this new building and the leaders have identified the challenges this shift have created. They have recognized that for them to achieve the hallmarks of quality of care as illustrated by the IOM they would have to ensure that the standards of culturally competent care are tailored to meet the needs of their new population and it cannot be done haphazardly. Goode (2004) stated that there is no easy solution to achieve cultural competence, it requires careful assessment, setting of specific goals and planning for meaningful growth. Nurse leaders are faced with challenges since the population served by this organization is diverse and consists predominantly of minorities who are more vulnerable to health, employment, and gender disparities. There are large amounts of Africans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians; moderate amount of Caucasians and very few Chinese and Vietnamese in our community. In comparison the staff consists of mainly Filipino, moderate Caucasians and few blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians. In 2008, the U.S.

Maintaining an organization with industry-leading levels of diversity and inclusion is critical to fulfilling our mission, sustaining our business objectives, and providing the highest quality, affordable, and culturally competent care to our members and patients and the communities we serve.” ("Kaiser Permanente",

According to the December 2012 United States Census Bureau Population Projection, the nation will continue its trend of consistent diversification. By 2024, the non-Hispanic white population will show a decrease in numbers. Minorities including Hispanics, African Americans and Asians will double, and other groups will increase by at least half. Eventually, non-Hispanic whites will not be seen as a majority, but as an equally represented group among its ethnic counterparts (U.S. Bureau, 2014). This projection can not be transposed to the country’s nursing population. Non-Hispanic white nurses often vastly outnumber other groups (Bessent, 2009, p6). The nursing workforce needs to actively and continually diversify its professionals to provide competent care for the nation’s ever-changing population.

In the last twenty years, the rising number of disparities in health and healthcare has increased simultaneously with the influx of minorities within the population (Baldwin, 2003) A4. As the size of an ethnically diverse population steadily continues to increase, so will the level of complexities of patients’ health needs, which nurses and other healthcare staff will be expected to address (Black, 2008) A1. The issue of racial, ethnic and health disparities for minorities exists for several complex reasons, however, even with this being widely known, very little action has been taken to try and correct it (Baldwin, 2003) A4. Research findings suggest that without actively implementing cultural diversity within the healthcare workforce, quality in healthcare will decline while health disparities continue to rise (Lowe & Archibald, 2009) A3. So although the shortage of nursing staff should be a high-priority for change in the U.S., the need for more registered nurses with racially

For health care workers, cultural competency is important for obvious reasons. On a daily basis, healthcare professionals work with patients of a variety of cultures, and many work with team members who come from different cultures than their own. Medical and other healthcare professionals spend many years in school learning how and when to treat patients for giving symptoms, but teaching them to interact with patients currently falls on knowing the things that make up a person’s cultural identity. Cultural differences that exist between people, such as language, dress and traditions, and the way societies organize themselves, their conception of morality and religion, attitudes about illness and death and the way they interact with the environment. Cultural competence is important in health care because the patient outcome, patient readmissions, staff retention, and labor relations all determine the outcome of an organizations success. Diversity improves the effectiveness and productivity of the workforce. Disadvantages of ignoring cultural diversity can result in a loss of revenue for the business. Company growth will also be affected by ignoring cultural diversity. Steps an organization should take to face this challenge is to implement training that cover workforce diversities and keep an open dialogue among employees expressing concerns, differences, ideas, etc.