A key concept for the nursing environment in the contemporary society is that which takes into consideration the fact that diversity within the workforce is a reality and if well managed it could be the strength towards a vibrant healthcare system. On the other hand, if poorly managed it could signal the commencement of a very poor and unresponsive healthcare system (Huber, 2013). The US healthcare system stands as one of the most vibrant and diverse systems mainly because of the extremely diverse culture within this US. Masaya’s case is one among the many that occur within the system where new nurses from very different cultures, in relation to the more mainstream cultures find it hard to adapt to the norms and aspects of the nursing environment as designed and appreciated within the US.
For Nurse leaders like Alicia, they have a role to help these new nurses who have hail from significantly different cultures and those from other countries to adapt to the new system without necessarily being sidelined by other staff as ‘externals’. A major concept that has helped bridge this cultural gap and help the new nurses in the integration process is to through leadership. In this regard, two major concepts have been applied to help this process; on one hand is the role of nurturing informal leadership skills in nurses all the way from the junior and new nurses (Huber, 2013). The idea here is to ensure that each nurse views the healthcare roles as a personal responsibility even when the duties are delegated. This helps in nurturing the aspects of shared responsibility and in this case, even with new staff nurses, every other nurse especially the experienced lot will see a need to help these new nurses adapt to the workplace culture (Masters, 2014).
On the other hand, the importance of collaboration and communication as key pillars of the working environment is highly regarded as a suitable method to manage diversity. With effective communication, the new nurses especially those with significant cultural differences from that shared by the majority of the workforce will feel free to share their concerns with not just their preceptors but also with the other staff members. The feedback between these new nurses and the other workforce helps significantly in developing a serene learning and working environment for the nurses even when their cultural values and beliefs are quite different from the mainstream ideologies in the workplace (Masters, 2014). The fear and anxiety of the new environment and the new culture is significantly minimized within such an environment thus becoming a suitable and less challenging platform for new nurses especially when it recognizes multiculturalism as a necessity rather than a burden (Masters, 2014).
References
Huber, D. (2013). Leadership and nursing care management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Masters, K. (2014). Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
