Diversity In The Workplace

As a refresher, I am interning at Mercy Behavioral Health Service Coordination Unit (MBH-SCU). Overall, I am enjoying the roles and activities in MBH-SUC and I believe that the experience is a very valuable learning practice. This reaction paper discusses a concept as it relates to my field practicum/field experience: Diversity and inclusion in healthcare organizations.

Due to the changing demographics of our society, hospitals and health systems need to be more diverse. Employees need to be hired that match the ethnic make-up of those they serve. Training for employees to be able understand others beliefs and values will support the patient-provider relationship. Finally, by promoting diversity within the health system, potential patients will be drawn into the system for care when historically they shied away from major institutions. By making culturally proficient care and treatment a priority, healthcare organizations will decrease “the gap in health status between minorities and other majority groups, patient-provider communication barriers, poor health outcomes for minorities and the presence of biases and prejudices among some health professionals” (Hart & Mareno 2013, p. 2223). This paper, will examine Hospital Corporation of America’s (HCA) website diversity.

pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medicalmanagement capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans.

At Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) at All Saints, we celebrated diversity week in June of this year. The Café featured a meal from a different culture each day. Then, in the main atrium, a culture map was hung with push pins available to mark the country of a person’s heritage. Later, an employee could choose to complete a puzzle related to diversity in health care. The completed puzzle could be turned in to Human Resources (HR), and the employee would be entered in a drawing for a prize. Another activity for the employees was Bingo. The card had quotes and trivia about diversity and were handed to employees to complete. Once the card was finished, the card was turned into HR. At that time, the employee was entered a drawing. Briefly, these activities demonstrate how BSWH at All Saints is actively educating the staff and others in the different cultures surrounding our hospital. In essence, the exercises focus on the positive aspects of the different cultural groups. This was a fun and enjoyment way of learning about the cultural and traditions of different groups of people. The atrium was filled with excitement and interaction with people. Incidentally, hospital administration was present during the festivities.

To begin with, it has been proven through research that when the healthcare staff’s diversity is the same as the general population’s diversity there is an improvement in the results of the care given by the health care workers resulting in a decrease in health disparities. Also, the hospital with more diversity has access through their diverse workforce to a variety of answers to the problems, dilemmas, or health care issues and needs of their patients and community. Furthermore, the hospital will realize through patient and employee surveys that both, patients and employees, are more content and happy with their hospital visit and working environment. Additionally, patients are willing to return for preventive care instead of being forced to return for treatment after the disease has developed. Plus, the hospital will discover that the employee’s turnover rate will diminish and there will be a boost in workers’ output. As a result, the cost of providing health care will decrease which is a win for everyone involved (Andrews & Boyle,

In the field of healthcare we will have regular contact with patients, community members, physicians, nurses, vendors, trustees, and organizational staff. As a healthcare administrator, I will strive to develop skills in working with people, negotiation, and analyzing information. Administrators in the field of healthcare are less specialized and more hands-on in their approach. In healthcare we not only build awareness, but we build trust, respect and understanding across cultures and within multicultural workplace, fostering productive interactions and agreements. I think it’s important to be aware of cultural diversity because relationships can die (or never began) simply for the lack of understanding. Cultural helps in the workplace to

Increasing diversity in the healthcare workforce will allow for an increase in patient care. Xue and Brewer (2014) state that “a culturally diverse healthcare workforce, one that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse population, is believed critical to provide culturally competent patient care, improve access to care, and help reduce health disparities” (p.1). In order to diversify the healthcare workforce their needs to be greater effort provided

MHHS has had a working and successful diversity program for the past ten years; however, after recent and careful findings, we have found that our diversity program is not producing results with diversity recruitment, selection, and retention of diversified employees. We have witnessed a significant decline in upper management by our minority and women employees. A large study was conducted that included interviews of past and present employees that gave many answers as to why our diversity program is not, and has not been fully functional. As an organization we need to change this drastically before we lose more diversified employees, which in turn hurts and hinders our patients and their anticipated recovery time. We must meet

Franz Boas said, “If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.” Your parents’ prosperity and fortune does not determine the level of opulence that you are able to achieve in your life, neither does the color of your skin. The meaning of equality is that two or more things are the same or identical. Even if they have one or two characteristics that are equal they will not have equivalent qualities. People think that others have the advantage when they really do not. If one thinks another has an unfair advantage and that they should be blessed with the same advantage, they need to realize that an advantage isn’t really an advantage. When one person is

I worked for a corporation that is very diverse and they believe in giving back to the employees and the community in Johns Creek, Georgia. This corporation has companies all over the world that believes in giving back to the community and making sure the employees are happy in their workplace. The company has many teams and group that support the organization. The people seemed eager to be a part of the team because they felt they were giving something back to the community. Everyone wanted to feel like they were doing something good and they enjoyed themselves doing it.

When the word diversity is mentioned, what comes to mind is the ‘obvious’ differences between people, such as race, culture, gender. The true and broader viewpoint would be - "diversity" is used broadly to refer to many demographic variables, including, but not limited to, race, religion, color, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, age, education, geographic origin, and skill characteristics. America's diversity has given this country its unique strength, resilience and richness. This is stated on a page of the U.S Department of the Interior. America has acknowledged that its diversity has much contributed to its relentless success.

1.The traditional change model consist of three steps: unfreezing, that is, recognizing the need for change because of some event or threat, the actual change actions and refreezing, that is, incorporating new ways of operating, and thinking into the everyday operations of the organization. Apply this model to the situation at the Coca-Cola Company at the point when the lawsuit was served in 1999.

In my current profession, I work with individuals from many different foreign countries. The overall most respectful and jovial clients I encounter are all from Brazil. They genuinely enjoy life and spread that joy to anyone around them. The Brazilians that I have been fortunate enough to work with are honest and trustworthy. They stand by their promises and always keep their word. Their positive attitude and ethics set a high standard that I believe the majority of Americans could learn from. We tend to be less charismatic and all business when dealing with others. Standing by our word and honoring our promises are also becoming less prevalent with Americans in today’s business world.

Diversity management is another strategy public sector organizations can use to retain employees. The Diversity management model is one that many different organizations have chosen to move towards in recent years. One reason for this increase in service delivery is the ability for clients to identify with workers with a cultural similarity occurs if an organization values a diverse workforce. In their journal, “Building an inclusive diversity culture: Principles, processes and practice”, Pless and Maak define diversity management as “an organizational environment that allows people with multiple backgrounds, mindsets and ways of thinking to work effectively together and to perform to their highest potential in order to achieve organizational objectives based on sound principles” (2004). The article, “Challenges in Diversity Management: A Case Study of MediHealth Systems” reported that, “differences among employees create diverse experiences for employees themselves in their organization in terms of performance, motivation, communication, and inclusion” (Pant & Vijaya, 2015). The overall purpose of diversity management is to increase a company’s competitive edge, utilize valuable human resources, provide equal opportunities in an effort to enhance creativity, innovation and problem solving within an organization (Basset-Jones, 2005; Noon, 2007). It is necessary for companies to maintain their competitive edge, especially in the public service, where public and private

Diverse populations bring different work styles, needs, experiences and values to the workplace. Various groups also bring different levels of education, cultures, traditions, religions and behaviors to the organization. To ensure that M&I Bank is an inclusive company, the bank created a Diversity/Inclusion Council that is dedicated to communicating diversity best practices to employees throughout the corporation. While the M&I Bank has a commitment to diversity, the challenge will be to push the commitment down to the branch level. M&I has done a very good at the corporate level and at the regional level. The recommendation is to use orientation as a basis for diversity education and there is a need for all employees to learn about cultural and generational differences.