NURS11162 Inclusive Practice For Nursing
Question:
1. Discuss the difficulties encountered in a culturally diverse workforce
2. Discuss the role of the nurse in responding to cultural diversity and inclusion in the workplace
3. Discuss the role of government policy in promoting the benefits of workforce diversity
Answer:
Introduction
The nursing workforce operating in Australia is demographically diverse,and having a culturally diverse nursing profession helps to increase the overall health outcomes of the patient. An expanded talent from diverse cultural background helps to increase the critical decision making skills of the team along with increasing the provision for handling a culturally diverse group of patients. However, working under a culturally diverse environment has a certain share of challenges. Thus, it is important for the Australian nurses to understand the ethical and legal obligations towards responding to the workplace diversity and thereby helping to improve the retention and turnover ofthe culturally diverse nurses. The following essay will highlight the importance of workplace diversity and then will critically analyse the difficulties encountered by the culturally diverse nursing workforce and the role of the nursing professionals in responding to this cultural diversity. The essay will also discuss how further workplace diversity in nursing care will be promoted under the influence of both the Australian government policies and active support of Australian nurses.The essay is thus based on the argument of workplace diversity in improving healthcare. The essay will also discuss how the active initiatives of Australian government and the Australian nursing professionals are important in reducing the stigmatization and promotion of cultural diversity among nursing workforce.
Difficulties encountered in culturally diverse workforce
Australia is a multicultural society and hence trans-cultural nursing is an important aspect of the Australian healthcare. A trans-cultural nurse seeks to deliver care that acknowledges the culture of an individual, his or her values and beliefs and practices and thereby assist the healthcare professionals in procuring a person-centred care plan (Prosen, 2015). This trans-cultural nursing is mainly headed by the international nurses or the nurses who are not from Australian origin. This culturally diverse workforce of Australian and non-Australian nurses experiences several problems and the main hurdle is the gap in communication. This gap in communication hampers the overall quality of care (Shen, 2015). Nielsen, Alice Stuart and Gorman (2014) conducted a study in order to ascertain the difficulties encountered by the international nursing professionals while working with the Australian nursing community. Results of Nielsen, Alice Stuart and Gorman (2014) highlighted that the main privilege and power is conferred to the white society of the nurses that sets a biased benchmark for the racially designated nursing professionals. The five international nursing professionals interviewed in relation to their work experience with Australian nursing community. They highlighted whiteness within the nursing profession is a dominating force that dismissesed the unique ability of the immigrating-registered nurses to bring in their actual care plan for the patients in unique and culturally competent manner. Moreover, practising within the clinical boundaries of the westernised nursing culture poses a significant challenge to the immigrants or international nurse nurses (Nielsen, Alice Stuart & Gorman, 2014).
Retention and recruitment of diverse ethnic workforce under the healthcare settings have contributed to the provision of culturally competent nursing care in multicultural healthcare context(Best & Stuart, 2014). Australian aboriginals experience double the disease burden in comparison to the non-aboriginal Australian (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2014). Hill, Sarfati, Robson and Blakely(2013) are of the opinion that provision of healthcare to the aboriginal people given by the aboriginal healthcare professional improves the overall access to appropriate healthcare and thereby helping to reduce the health inequality. This highlights the importance of the recruitment of the aboriginal nursing staffs in the health care domain of Australia. An increase in the aboriginal nursing professionals in healthcare Australia facilitates comprehensive interaction with the aboriginal clients or patients in Australia and this intercultural space will turn helps to increase the overall health related outcomes in among the Australian aboriginals (Best & Stuart, 2014). However, there are several difficulties in handling Australian and aboriginal nurse workforce under perfect unison. Keshet and Popper-Giveon (2016) conducted a study in order to highlight the work-experience of the ethnic minority nurses that affect the job burnout, attractiveness of the occupation, and turnover intentions. The result of the open-ended interview highlighted that the nurses from the ethnic minority groups experience benefits as well as challenges under culturally diverse workforce. The majority of the Australian nurses from the indigenous background are of the opinion that they become victims of social exclusion or are stereotyped. They said while on duty they face disapproving looks from their fellow colleagues who are from non-aboriginal community and also face discrimination in the domain of career promotion and handling powerful role in the job sector (Keshet& Popper-Giveon, 2016). Thus, it can be said that the aboriginal nurses continuously become victim of racism and discrimination while working with the non-aboriginal nursing community.
Role of nurse in responding to cultural diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Wilson, Kelly, Magarey, Jones and Mackean (2016) conducted an open-ended interview to ascertain the role of the nurse towards adequately handling the cultural diversity in the workplace, conducted an open-ended interview. The interview recruited 35 health care professionals working in South Australia in relation to their experience of working with internationalnursingprofessionals. The outcome of the interviewhighlighted two main factors, which influence the experience of the Australian health care professionals working with non-Australian nursing workforce. These two factors include the mindset of the Australian nurses and the organisational factor. The results of the study highlighted that improvement of the organisational culture, increase in the organisational support and increase in the accessibility of the health related services will help to reduce the gap between the international and Australian nurses working in Australia. In the personal level, the Australian nurses must change their personal ideology (Wilson, Kelly, Magarey, Jones &Mackean, 2016). Therefore to reduce the discrimination and isolation of the immigrants or international nursing professionals by the Australian nurse, both organisation and the Australian-origin nurse must come forward. They are also required to work on their ideology and organisational culture to reduce the stereotype isolation while maintaining a stable culturally diverse workforce.
In relation to the promotion of the workplace diversity in the cultural ground, the government of Australia has come up with a special inclusion plan to increase the inclusion rate of the aboriginal nursing work-force. According to this inclusion plan, to maintain a culturally diverse workforce in the healthcare domain, it is the role of the non-aboriginal healthcare professionals to value and respect the non-aboriginal employees (Safe Work Australia, 2016). The main inclusion strategy designed by the Safe Work Australia Diversity helps to define the direction and priorities of the workplace diversity along with inclusion. The inclusion of aboriginal nurse will come through increasing the recruitment of the aboriginal nursing professionals, increase in the flexibility of the framework of that supports working arrangement of the aboriginal nurses, and proper workplace culture (Safe Work Australia, 2016). It is the duty of the non-aboriginal nursing population to maintain a healthy workplace culture through flexible leadership skills and effective communication skills. Effective leadership skills can be achieved through diversity training in leadership quality and this diversity in turn will promote effective communication skills (Park, 2015). In order to ensure the flexible working environment, the non-aboriginal nursing professional is required welcome and acknowledge all the queries and the shortcoming of the aboriginal or Torres-Strait Islander nurses (Safe Work Australia, 2016). Thus, the to increase the retention of the non-aboriginal nurse professionals, it is the duty of the non-aboriginal nursing professionals of work effectively. This co-operative approach will promote work-place diversity. This effectiveness in work field must be highlighted by their leadership quality and the communication skills. Proper leadership quality and communication skills will promote flexible working environment of the aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander nursing professionals and thereby helping to decrease their turnover rate. Moreover, the Australian nurses are required to change their ideology and their perspective towards the aboriginal nursing professionals. The change will reduce stigmatization and will cause overall promotion of workplace diversity.
Role of government policy in promoting workplace diversity
The government of Australia, department of health, has a separate workforce diversity program (2013 to 2016) with an aim to increase innovation in healthcare along with an increase in the service to the clients and promotion of competitive management practices. The implementation of the program is done through Nielsen, Alice Stuart and Gorman (2014) fostering an inclusive culture in workplace, increasing retention and development of staffs through identification of the diversity groups and zero tolerance for the social exclusion, racism and discrimination (The Department of Health – Australian Government, 2013). The Government of Australia also implements employment related disadvantage to the aboriginal staffs through identification of the diversity in the workplace (The Department of Health – Australian Government, 2013). Gwynne and Lincoln (2017) are of the opinion that the promotion of the inclusive culture in the workplace is effective in encouraging the workplace diversity through creating a welcoming environment for the aboriginal nursing professionals. Gibson et al. (2015) highlighted that, to improve inequalities in aboriginal health; there is an indispensable need for Aboriginal nurses. Aboriginal nursing population has an inherent knowledge about the society and culture of the Aboriginals, which undoubtedly set them apart from the non-aboriginal nurses in their interaction with the aboriginal patients. In order to encourage more recruitment of aboriginal nursing workforce, the government of Australia has also taken initiative in providing special training to the nursing professional. The main initiatives include cross cultural communication training, training in managing a culturally diverse workforce and simultaneous factoring cultural diversity into business (Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2014). King et al. (2013) also emphasized over the importance of the cross-cultural communication training among culturally diverse nurse in order to improve the healthcare outcome. This is because, having cross-cultural communication training, gap in the information or miss-communication among the nursing professionals from different cultural origin can be reduced and thereby helping to improve the overall quality of care. (Henderson, Barker & Mak, 2016). Workplace Diversity Policy, Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care (2014) also recognises, respects and values the indivudal differences in work. The policy also acknowledges diversity in educational level, life-experience, maritial staus, work-experiece, persoanlity and socio-economic status. The diversity program also work with improved understanding of the services and reducing unintended bias among women, Aboriginals and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities (CALD). The overall initiatives help to increase innovation, service to the client and improvement in the work environment.
Molloy (2017) stated that to increase workplace diversity in the nursing force, the government of Australia must increase the recruitment and retention of the aboriginal nursing professionals. This can be done by increasing the academic success of the indigenous nurses along with an increase in the exposure of the indigenous nursing students towards the advance academic techniques. This mainly highlights the importance of the having an updated academic structure for the indigenous nursing students. This revamp of the nursing curriculum in the rural indigenous nursing schools will help to refine the overall academic knowledge of the aspiring indigenous nurses. The revamp will help increase the recruitment of the Aboriginal nurses (Molloy, 2017). Moreover, the government of Australia must also introduce special scholarship and schemes for the indigenous nursing students. The scholarship programs encourage the aspiring Aboriginals to enroll in the nursing curriculum and thus, increasing the strength of the aspiring culturally diverse workforce in nursing (Martin & Seguire, 2013).
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that workplace diversity has dramatic impact on the performance of the employee and this in turn promotes the success of the overall organisation. In Australia, increasing workplace diversity among the nursing professionals through increasing the recruitment of the indigenous nurses will help to promote the overall health outcome of the indigenous Australian population by reducing health inequality. However, having a culturally diverse workforce has certain disadvantages as it raises the issue of stigmatization and discrimination in the work field. Thus, it is the role of the Australian nurses to come forward and actively cooperate with the Aboriginal and the international nurses and thereby helping to increase their retention. The government of Australia is also taking active initiatives to increase the inclusion of the aboriginal or culturally diverse nurse workforce in Australian healthcare by promoting the norms of workplace diversity. However, active efforts are required to be undertaken in increasing the educational access of the aspiring indigenous nursing students so that aboriginals get equal opportunity to indulge in the nursing profession with proper education and exposure.
References
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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2014). Mortality and life expectancy of Indigenous Australians.Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; Access date: 14th August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/mortality-life-expectancy-2008-2012/contents/table-of-contents
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