Evaluating Equality and Diversity Issues in a Nursing Case Study

This essay analyzes a case study concerning equality and diversity issues within the nursing profession. It explores how prejudice and discrimination can lead to the disempowerment of individuals, specifically highlighting instances of bullying and harassment. The essay evaluates the application of human rights within healthcare, examining direct and indirect discrimination within the case study, including racial bias. It then analyzes strategies for promoting equality and diversity in healthcare settings, considering the underrepresentation of certain groups and the importance of diversity. The essay concludes with an analysis of current equality legislation relevant to healthcare, such as the Equality Act of 2010, and discusses implications for healthcare professionals and patient care. The case study demonstrates the impact of discriminatory behavior on staff and the importance of upholding ethical standards and legal frameworks to ensure a fair and inclusive environment within the healthcare sector.

An Analysis of Case Study to evaluate the equality and diversity
issues in the nursing profession
1. Introduction
Nursing profession involves compassionate care for patients and is also termed as a
profession of care (Ashker, Penprase and Salman 2012). In the United Kingdom,
professional ethics for nurses and midwives are governed by the Nursing and
Midwifery Council (NMC). These ethics are described in detail in the Code:
‘Professional Standards for Behavior and Practice for Nurses and Midwives (revised
NMC Code Unveils 25 Good Practice Standards, 2015)’ which contains a section on
cooperative work, that states that nurses should have some contribution to fellow
colleagues. They should maintain effective communication and keep their colleagues
informed when they share patient care. They should support colleagues who may
experience health or performance related issues.
Prejudice, discrimination and bullying are common in the UK and in other countries
and it is reported in particular by the nursing community. The most important
perpetrators are nurses in a higher position and established staff members.
Students and newly recruited nursing staff are likely targets to be bullied or harassed.
Discrimination, bullying or intimidation can lead to anxiety and depression, and
nearly 25% of them are being harassed, as a result they quit their job and creating a
negative impact on overall patient care (Wilson, 2016). Factors that contribute to
bullying are staff representing management and health professionals. They do not
cooperate with the new recruits. Silence and passivity by managers and colleagues
allow this behaviour to continue. The other reasons are humiliation, information
withheld and they are required to perform their work with unreasonable goals and
deadlines. (Alexis and Shillingford, 2014). The most important impact is
psychological distress, depression and a negative effect on patient care.
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2. Analysis of case study
2.1 Effect of prejudice and discrimination leading to the disempowerment of
individuals.
Prejudices are a preconceived idea or opinion and have no basis on fact, reason or
actual experience. Discrimination is the injustice or bias of people based on age, race,
gender or other reasons. Disempowerment means depriving a person of power or
authority. On the other hand, empowerment is where someone can become stronger
and more self-assured, especially when it comes to being able to claim their rights and
control their own lives.
There was also some evidence that prejudice can be reduced by means of exposure to
different cultures and through openness (Sparkman, Eidelman and Blanchar, 2016).
Discrimination affects everyone wherever it takes place (Pittman, Davis, Shaffer,
Herrera and Bennett, 2014). Not only those who are directly involved, but also people
around the peripheral devices of the situation, those who themselves provide the
discrimination, and society as a whole. For individuals, discrimination and prejudice
can have highly amplified effects, especially if those people have insufficient support
from family, community and people with authority. Bullying is not just something
that happens at school. It also takes place at work or elsewhere - even in hospitals
between staff and patients - and is often related to prejudice. Negative behaviour of
this type may not always be due to prejudice but can be cleverly linked to the victim's
performance at work, the way they present themselves or personality conflicts in the
office or department.
For this reason, bullying is a particularly effective tool for disempowerment (Ariza-
Montes et al., 2013), because it highlights the victim's attributes and problems. "Fair"
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disciplinary procedures mean that when a complaint is made, all involved are
suspended and are expected to undergo an official investigation. This can cause
further problems for the victim, especially if the bully is more focused on work and is
often supported by hidden prejudices of managers.
In this case study, Salome is a newly qualified nurse who starts her career in the
clinic. Instead of getting support from her senior nurses or administrative staff, she
falls prey to bullying and discrimination from other colleagues. All senior staff
members have the prejudice that the newly hired nurses know nothing. Instead of
supporting her, they started harassing her in various ways. The secretary has given her
an unnecessary task to find X-ray papers of some patients Salome was ready to do the
job after lunch. The secretary wanted the job to be done immediately, although she
was fully aware that Salome had just received an urgent assignment just after lunch.
She could not take lunch and collected all the X-ray papers and kept them on the
secretary's table. It took 20 minutes before she had searched all the x-rays. In
exchange, the secretary reprimanded her for the delay, and when Salome left, they
laughed. This bullying tactics by harassing young staff members often occur at
workplaces. Although there are laws against it, there is no solution for this. When she
reported the regular service, she was late and was reprimanded by the senior nurse,
and when Salome said that the secretary Lynn gave him some work, the senior nurse
called Salome called a liar as Lynn had said that she knew nothing about Salome. This
is an example of discrimination. The second incidence was a racial comment that was
passed on to a black African-born doctor. When the doctor started saying something
to Lynn, she started chatting with a few other colleagues, and when the doctor left, a
racial comment was made about the black people living in mud houses.
2.2 An evaluation of the application of human rights within the health care
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Most of the laws relating to the application of human rights within health care are
relating to nurse and patient relationship. Even then there should be evidence required
to support for application of Human Rights violation. The human rights violation is
also observed between staffs of the same unit and there should be evidence to support
that. In this case, study the two incidence support that there is a clear case of
discrimination; in the first case the senior staff are harassing the junior staff and in the
case of the doctor it is racial discrimination.
Trusts must address any areas where discrimination appears in practice, whether it is
direct or indirect in nature. Direct discrimination takes place when someone
deliberately puts somebody in a disadvantageous position. Indirect discrimination is
when policies or practices that are supposed to apply to everyone end up
disadvantaging some people. The case study is an example of direct discrimination.
Individual staff members also should uphold equality, non-discrimination, and trusts
and should be guided by policies that outlines their responsibilities. It should be
ensured that suitable penalties should be imposed on people who are found to have
acted in a discriminatory way (Fiscella and Sanders, 2016).
2.3 Promotion of ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ within health care.
The main concept behind equality is creation of a better society. Everyone can have
equal participation and should have the opportunity to prove their potential. (Ocloo
and Matthews, 2016). Women constitute nearly 75% of the working population of the
NHS but they are mostly concentrated among the lower paid professions like nurses,
paramedical health workers (AHPs), administrative staff and social workers. Ethnic
minorities constitute 39.1% of the hospital's medical staff, but among all hospital-
medical consultants the percent is 22.1 (Igp.training, 2019).
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The concept of equality means that our social identity affects our experience in life in
terms of race, religion, age, disability, gender and social class ('white snow peaks'
remain the same as NHS, 2017). Literally, diversity is related to difference. When
used in addition to contrast or equality, it identifies individual and group differences,
treating people as individuals, and providing positive value for diversity in the
community and the workforce.
In the past, employers ignored certain differences. However, individual and collective
diversity must be taken into account to ensure that everyone's needs and requirements
are understood and answered in terms of employment and the design and delivery of
services. The development of flexibility in working procedures and services is the
outcome of the organization responding to diversity in recent years. Of the two cases
mentioned, equality and diversity are not present in this clinical setup.
2.4 Current equality legislation for health care
The most important equality legislation that affects health care in the UK is the
Equality Act of 2010. The act has been developed to simplify existing legislation and
make it easier for people and organizations to comply with the aforementioned
inconsistencies (Lane and Parkes, 2012). It applies to any person or organization that
provides a public service and includes a private, voluntary, and community
organization, as well as public funds such as NHS Trusts.
Protection from harassment
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When an employer is intimated that an employee with a protected characteristic or
associated with a person with a protected characteristic has been harassed twice or
more and that the employer is not taking remedial steps to prevent the harassment, the
employee may have reasons to submit a claim against their employer for not
protecting them adequately (Deery, Walsh and Guest, 2011).
3. Conclusion
Dignity is a universal and complex concept and it has an important influence on the
experiences of patients in health care. It is the main principle in professional health
care. Human dignity applies equally to all people. However, in the healthcare sector,
reports of loss of dignity continue unchallenged and behaviour of health workers can
contribute to loss of value. If they do not appreciate the dignity of their colleagues,
how the diversity of patients and their individual differences are valued.
Discriminatory behaviour can result and lead to undignified care. All health
professionals must understand how dignity, diversity and equality are interrelated and
how they can preserve the dignity of each individual. Prejudice, discrimination,
harassment of racial inequality is very common among whites and blacks, and the
concept of equality remains on paper. Unless the medical workforce works as a
unified team, all of these laws and government initiatives will not be effective and
patients will ultimately suffer.
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