Workplace Diversity in Nursing Workforce: Challenges and Role of Nurses and Government Policies

Running head: WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN NURSING WORKFORCE
Workplace diversity in the nursing workforce with a focus on ethno-religious cultural groups
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN NURSING WORKFORCE
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

2
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN NURSING WORKFORCE
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

3
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN NURSING WORKFORCE
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.