Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Nurses are at the forefront of health care delivery. A patient’s satisfaction to the care he or she receives in a hospital depends on a large extent to the way nurses interact with him or her. At present, there is a growing diversity not only among patients served, but also within the health care personnel. Thus, for nurses to provide the best possible care for their patients, it is important to institutionalize effective mechanisms that promote diversity awareness and self-diversity awareness. An example of such mechanism is the proposed Diversity Awareness Campaign.
The Diversity Awareness Campaign is aimed at enhancing the cultural competence of nurses. This entails recognizing self-diversity, and acknowledging diversity in the workplace. A strengthened awareness about diversity will increase the confidence of nurses, and promote a better working environment in hospitals. This particular campaign will also contribute to the overall goal of patient safety and satisfaction.
Target population
Nurses and other hospital staff are the target participants of the program.
Benefits of the program
The Diversity Awareness Campaign benefits patients, nurses, hospital staff, and the families of patients. It promotes patient safety, builds nurses’ confidence, and develops cultural competence.
Ensure patient safety. Nurses’ understanding about a patient’s ethnic background is essential to provide the best care. The literature contains cases that illustrate cultural beliefs in conflict with hospital care. One example is that of a nurse administering an insulin dose for a diabetic patient and provides the patient with food that was actually culturally forbidden. Her negligence results from failure of carrying cultural assessment. The patient’s safety is threatened in this situation because the patient will not eat food that is against his/her beliefs. This would have a negative effect on his/her health because there is a delay between the insulin dose and food intake (Jeffreys, 2008). Thus, it is important to emphasize the need for cultural competence, and increasing nurses’ awareness about diversity is a key step.
Facilitate a positive health care experience among patients. In multicultural settings, such as the US, patients who come to the hospitals for treatment come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Their perspectives about healing and health practices may be different from that of their health providers. When they come to the hospital for treatment, they may feel apprehensive about the medical procedures, even the initial interview. When nurses are culturally competent, they are able to make the patient feel less threatened about the procedures. Nurses who are sincere, respectful, and culturally-sensitive contribute to a patient’s positive experience in the hospitals. However, when patients feel that they are looked down because of their ethnicity, they become more stressed. Thus, nurses need to be conscious about the ethnic diversity among the population they serve.
Increase the confidence of nurses. Diverse ethnic backgrounds do not only apply to patients. Nurses, too, come from varying cultures. The health workforce of the US and other developed nations is comprised of nurses who come from developing countries. They come to work in the hospitals, in the US for example, because these establishments offer better economic prospects. Aside from being schooled in their own countries, they too possess the cultural beliefs and practices of their own nations. Their manner of interacting with superiors may be different from that of the US population. These cultural differences may result in nurses being shy and less assertive, or supervisors unable to understand their subordinates’ lack of communication. The assessment of diversity “necessitates cultural assessment of patients and cultural sharing among health-care professionals” (Jeffreys, 2008, p. 37). It is therefore critical that nurses recognize their own cultural diversity so that they are able to identify the differences between them, their co-workers, and their patients.
Develop culturally competent health care providers. The growing diversity in the health clientele necessitates continuing enhancement of the providers’ cultural sensitivity and competence. The Diversity Awareness Campaign will update the nurses’ and providers’ knowledge, and clarify common misconceptions.
Cost or budget justification
The campaign will be implemented in a period of one year at the local hospitals. Activities include (a) providing access to materials about culture and practices of different ethnic groups; (b) video presentations about health-care practices; (c) inviting guests to talk about their culture; and (d) workshop among nurses and hospital staff to assess the impact of the activities on their diversity awareness and self-diversity awareness. The activities that would require the most financial resources are items c and d. A guest speaker is invited to share about their ethnic group’s health perspectives every two months for a total of 6 guest speakers for the year. A detailed budget will be prepared once the list of guest speakers is finalized.
Basis upon which the project will be evaluated
The project’s success will be evaluated from two sides. The first is on the side of the participants (nurses and hospital staff) and the other is on the side of the patients. The impact of the diversity awareness campaign will be assessed from a short checklist that patients will fill out regarding their healthcare experience in the hospital.
References
Jeffreys, M. (2008). Dynamics of diversity: Becoming better nurses through diversity awareness. NSNA Imprint. November/December 2008, pp. 36-41. Retrieved from http://www.nsna.org/Portals/0/Skins/NSNA/pdf/Imprint_NovDec08_Feat_Jeffreys.pdf.
