Daily, healthcare workers are exposed to individuals who are different from themselves. According to Engbretson (2016), every human being shares DNA that is 99.9% identical. However, diversity and uniqueness are undeniably found in everyone. In my own nursing practice and personal life, I have experienced and witnessed judgements, prejudices, and stereotyping. To truly appreciate the differences that each person contains is to understand that unique differences do exist between people. Because everyone is unique, diversity should not be shamed but instead celebrated! The purpose of this discussion board is to define diversity in my own words, describe some benefits of a diverse work healthcare workforce along with some barriers to diversity in the nursing profession, and lastly, my own diverse cultural background will be considered in how is affects the nursing care I provide. Diversity defined in my own words, means the presence, acceptance, and awareness of differences that are seen between a set of people. Furthermore, diversity is anything that sets one individual apart from another. Differing factors can be obvious or not so apparent. Often, differences, …show more content…
Awareness and acceptances was also found to be a part of diversity. Benefits of a diverse healthcare workforce included collective decision making, effectiveness, and responsiveness to a culture’s healthcare needs. Some barriers to diversity in the nursing profession include backgrounds of biases, underrepresentation of minorities in a healthcare industry, and misunderstanding of cultural differences. It was discovered that because of my own cultural upbringing, I can work in the nursing profession of corrections. With acceptance of differing viewpoints and the inclusion of unique perspectives, culturally congruent care can be shown by nurses throughout the healthcare