Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Need For Health Promotion For Minority Nurses And Students

By Linda Stewart


The minority is a group of the population that is unlike the majority. Such may be classified on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, culture among others. The need for diversified nursing students has grown overwhelmingly in hospitals and other healthcare facilities as they strive to have an all-inclusive workforce of nurses. Minority nurses are able to establish a good rapport with clients from similar cultures easily hence trust in earned easily. This is mainly because of the growing minority populations in many countries due to immigration and intermarriage with locals. Here is a summary on health promotion for minority nurses and students.

Minor communities often have a high proportion of immigrants who have limited language skills, especially in English. In cases where such individuals are in need of medical attention, attending to them turns out to a hard enough task as they cannot express themselves in a way that the health practitioners understand. Understanding the cultural beliefs also gets in the way in instances where they affect treating methods. Nurses with similar backgrounds are able to gain the trust of such clients easily hence the more need to have a diversified nursing workforce.

Nursing schools are having developed interest in admitting learners from underrepresented cultures who desire to practice holistic education. This is a move that can only be fueled if they receive many applications from such individuals. The numbers however still remain low despite the campaigns to encourage minority applications.

Affirmative action helps minorities land into top-notch institutions by considering their race rather than their academic prowess. Such policies have encountered a lot of contradiction from local courts and interested parties arguing that admission should only be done on the basis of merit. Racism has also been pointed out. Diverse classrooms should, however, be considered as crucial to the health industry whichever way they are achieved.

Despite many interested parties pushing for increased enrollment of minorities, their retention in learning institutions remains low. Such students deal with difficulties like financial instability, family responsibilities and some even work to pay for their education. Learning institutions have tried to fill the gap by offering financial aid to the students who are not able to raise their fees. Increasing accessibility of classes for the learners balancing education, family, and work is also a way to keep such scholars in school.

Apart from gaining support from institutions of learning, minorities also experience some challenges that come as a result of being in school with other students. They experience bias on matters relating to academic skills, insufficient faculty role play models, awkward perceptions about their abilities, and limited peer to peer support.

Students from underrepresented backgrounds tend to be affected by a selective admission process which also in some cases serves them right. Academic profiling may, however, leave out some minorities as most of them struggle with being the first in their families to attend higher learning. The pressure on such learners is overwhelming as they deal with having to be the saviors of their families.

Health promotions require being done at the level of schools and health facilities apart from doing them at a large scale level. Diversification of the nursing workforce requires being the driving force for most institutions and the advantages that come with it. Factors of merit also need not be left out in the selection process. Although most minorities have trouble at first adjusting to the workplace, they later prove to be of undeniable help in the institutions they work for.




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