Introduction
The ideas of equality and elimination of discriminatory behavior have now become deeply integrated into the social patterns worldwide. Indeed, today’s public attention is constantly drawn to the promotion of diversity and inclusiveness, creating an image of equality and respect. However, while the situation steadily changes towards positive outcomes, the pace of such change is nothing but insufficient when compared to the scope of social diversity. Besides the disruption of ordinary communication, the problem contributes to increasing inequality rates in the workplace. To address this issue, many companies and employment sectors nowadays invest both time and money in the introduction of equality policies and the embracement of diversity in the workplace (Scarborough et al., 2019). The primary goal of the present paper is to examine the notion of gender and ethnic diversity in the context of the modern health care segment.
Background: Workforce Diversity in Health Care
The health care sector has always been a tremendously important part of the overall employment patterns in the U.S., accounting for more than 10% of the population. For this reason, the idea of equality and diversity has inevitably become a severe challenge for the segment, encouraging the administration to promote discriminatory behavior elimination. However, while the primary focus is generally placed on the health care accessibility for the patients, less attention is drawn to the idea of diversity among employees.
However, over the past five years, both governmental and public institutions put considerable effort into the close examination of employment patterns within the segment. The attention was paid to the notions of gender and ethnic affiliation in terms of the employees’ number and positions within the sector’s labor hierarchy. Thus, in 2017, Diversity Best Practices, an organization for organizational diversity, created a report evaluating the inclusiveness state across the realm of U.S. health care.
Challenges of Health Care
For the sake of objectivity, prior to conducting a direct diversity patterns examination, the authors of the report made sure to provide an overview of the general tendencies in health care. Thus, according to the report, the modern development of health care has been affected significantly by the rapidly increasing demographic rates across the state (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a). Moreover, besides the growing population rate, the U.S. demographics tend to change in terms of the scope of cultural diversity.
As a result, the future of health care segment development is highly dependent on the notion of cultural awareness. Such a scenario plays a significant role in the healthcare administrators’ decision-making process and embracing diversity within the facility, as the modern health care system promotes a competitive environment where a patient is a potential service customer. Eventually, this process tackles the notion of the workforce, as promotion of employment diversity contributes to the elimination of ethnic and gender stigma in society as a whole.
Affordable Care Act
A prime example of enforcing equality policies is the adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Initially, the ACA was created in order to secure a long-term goal of insurance coverage nationwide, making no exceptions in terms of ethnic affiliation and social status of an individual. However, while promoting accessible care regardless of one’s social and ethnic background, the Act managed to tackle the idea of diversity and reduction of health care disparities among personnel as well. Thus, the ACA covered such provisions as:
- Increasing diversity rates within various aspects of health care workforce;
- Collecting necessary data to account for the establishment’s diversity rates;
- The financial obligation to promote a culturally diverse professional education curriculum (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a).
Workforce Shortage
Another significant health care challenge outlined in the report tackles the notion of worker shortages. According to the report, more than 30% of the physicians will be 65 and older by the year 2025, and by the year 2022, more than 1 million nurses will be needed to join the workforce (Diversity Best Practices, 2017b). Moreover, considering the given pace of retirement, in the next 3-10 years, the health care workforce may experience a 23-million worker shortfall (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a). As a result, many administrators fail to meet the needs of a diverse modern environment and find enough talent to account for the increasing population’s demand for culturally appropriate health care. Moreover, a variety of social factors limiting women and minorities in terms of education and obtaining high-paying executive positions limits the administrations’ abilities to provide jobs to a culturally equal extent.
As a result, the health care workforce fails to reflect the social hierarchy and diversity prevailing in today’s U.S. context. Considering the aforementioned challenges, it may be concluded that health care has now become one of the most important employment contexts in terms of diversity promotion, creating a demand for extremely high qualitative indicators. However, while analyzing the current workforce patterns, it is necessary to approach the data critically by considering external factors that limit the sector’s capabilities.
Diversity in Health Care Analysis
Prior to reflecting on the data, it is essential to outline the most significant quantitative indicators that provide a clear perception of diversity. Thus, according to the Diversity Best Practices (2017a) report, the following findings may be presented:
- Women’s representation in the workforce is one of the highest across various segments, constituting almost 80% of the positions. However, only 4% of healthcare companies are run by women;
- Considering the executive positions in health care, minority women are significantly underrepresented;
- Only 9% of CEO positions across the sector are occupied by minority populations;
- As for 2015, Black men’s pay was 17% lower than the average white men’s salary, and Black women received pay 13% lower than white women;
- Women are 52% less likely to obtain a professional promotion even when having enough qualifications and expertise to pursue the career;
- Nearly 90% of leadership positions in healthcare are occupied by men.
Considering the data above, it would be appropriate to assume that the modern state of affairs in health care does not meet the expectations for a diverse environment. According to the researchers, today’s patterns of the U.S. population gradually eliminate the idea of the white majority, paving the path to high levels of diversity and quantitative mitigation of white privilege across the state (Diversity Best Practices, 2017b). Given the existing justification of gender and ethnic discrimination, some health care representatives still manage to underrate the scope of the problem, thus decreasing the chances of meaningful change over the next years. Indeed, according to the statistics:
- 73% of white participants of the national survey of healthcare executives believe in the improvement of opportunities for diverse leaders, whereas among minority groups, only 34% of respondents share this opinion (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a).
- 28% of the respondents believe in the health care’s success in terms of closing the diversity gap over the past years, as opposed to 12% of minority leaders who also support the argument (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a).
Hence, having observed the aforementioned data, it may be concluded that today’s perception of women and minorities in the healthcare workforce still requires much effort in terms of achieving tangible diversity goals. Another critical issue that should be taken into account when addressing the notion of diversity is the demographics across various health care units. Speaking of this employment sector, people frequently make preconceived assumptions about the gender affiliation related to a specific occupation.
For example, it is commonly believed that male nurses are an oddity, whereas units like surgery and traumatology are predominantly occupied by men. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with the HRSA and the National Centre for Health Workforce Analysis, conducted an overview of sex, race, and ethnic diversity within the sector. In such a way, they tried to provide quantitative grounding for the existing hypotheses while assessing the success of the ACA in action. Thus, throughout the analysis, the following conclusions have been drawn:
- Out of 30 occupation groups discussed in the report, women represented the workforce majority in 25 of them (approximately 83%);
- Women were underrepresented in such occupations as dentists, chiropractors, physicians, optometrists, emergency medical technicians (EMT), and paramedics;
- Among all the health occupations studied, white employees constituted more than 50% of positions in every category;
- In 23 occupation groups, white employees were overrepresented when compared to the U.S. employment patterns (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017).
Taking into account the aforementioned data, it would be reasonable to assume that such patterns do not exactly reflect the idea of eliminating the so-called “white privilege’ from the workplace. Undeniably, when accounting for the statistics, it is of paramount importance to compare the data with the national demographics in order to reach a critically assessed conclusion. For the sake of comparison, the occupation of a social worker was chosen, as it was believed to be one of the most diverse in the field. Hence, 12% of the representatives were Hispanic, 21% – Black, 3% – Asian, less than 1% – American Indian/Alaska Native (0.8) and Native Hawaiian (0.1), and 2% – other (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017, p. 12). The workforce patterns within the state, in their turn, account for the following statistics:
- Hispanic – 16.1%
- Black/African American – 11.6%
- Asian – 5.8%
- Multiple/Other races – 1.8%
- American Indian and Alaska Native – 0.6%
- Native Hawaiian – 0.2% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017, p. 12).
This comparison demonstrates that it takes the most ethnically diverse occupation in the health care sector to be able to reflect the current state of affairs in terms of population. Thus, as far as most professions are concerned, the representation rates still fall behind when it comes to the reflection of society. Another issue that should be emphasized in the context of such comparison is the fact the highest diversity rates in health care are eventually correlated with median salaries. Indeed, the sphere of community and social services is generally one of the lowest-paid occupations in the sector. The same pattern may be observed when it comes to the notion of gender. According to the report discussed earlier in the paper, women, along with minorities, are mostly represented in retail health sales and stock, whereas these positions tend to be low-paying jobs with barely any employment benefits (Diversity Best Practices, 2017b). Hence, it may be concluded that when accounting for the minorities and women’s representation in the workforce, it is of paramount importance to correlate this presence to the position they occupy in the hierarchy.
The final part of the analysis should be dedicated to the evaluation of the overall growth or decrease in terms of diversity tendencies in health care. According to the HHS report, the 2011-2015 data assessment eventually resulted in minor improvements in terms of diversity embracement in the workforce (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017). The term “improvement” in this context stands by the process of downward tendency in the white employees occupying the vast majority of workplaces.
Although the decrease is relatively small, the change is still observed in every occupation analyzed, creating a foundation for a positive diversity growth environment. Simultaneously, the vast majority of professions accounted for higher diversity rates in practically every minority ethnic group (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017). Thus, the scenario above demonstrates slow yet positive tendencies in the way towards achieving proper diversity rates within the environment.
However, there are also some examples that indicate the negative contributions to the process. Thus, when it comes to women’s salaries, the discrepancy between payments to Black and white female employees was nearly imperceptible in 2007, whereas in 2015, Black women were paid 13% less (Diversity Best Practices, 2017a). Although there is no indication of the reasons behind such a dramatic change, one may relate the tendencies to the external social factors that might subconsciously affect the process of decision-making. Taking these facts into account, it may be concluded that despite the common claim of positive dynamics in terms of diversity in the health care sector, the issue should not be perceived as inherently promising. Indeed, there is still much effort required in order to eliminate the concepts of gender and ethnic discrimination from the employment picture. To accelerate this change, some major recommendations may be outlined.
Recommendations
At the outset, it is crucially important to emphasize the scope diversity has in the context of health care. Besides addressing some severe social issues and discrimination that tackle modern U.S. society, diversity in the health care workforce accounts for improved health outcomes for the ethnically diverse population (Wilbur et al., 2020). First, the research indicates that Black health professionals are more likely to place a higher value on primary medical care providers and recognize the asset of being able to help patients in need regardless of their ethnic affiliation or social status. White professionals, in their turn, are more likely to pursue the career of secondary care specialists (Wilbur et al., 2020). Statistics indicate that the vast majority of individuals enrolling in medical schools are white.
Thus, it would be reasonable to assume that students from ethnic minority groups face a challenge when trying to receive a medical degree due to various socio-economic constraints in the way. However, in terms of the ACA provisions, today’s primary goal of the health care workforce is placed on primary care for all social groups, meaning the need to promote medical education among an ethnically diverse population. The recommendation outlined by the researchers is related to the introduction of better social, academic, and financial support of the ethnic groups across the state (Wilbur et al., 2020). In such a way, potential health care specialists will be able to pursue medical careers, thus enhancing the sector of primary care and addressing the ongoing issue of workforce shortage.
Another valuable recommendation is the enforcement of diversity embracing public policies. Although there are currently various governmental initiatives addressing equality and discriminatory behavior elimination, including the ACA, they may be considered too broad to ensure a tangible response. For this reason, it is of paramount importance for the local administrators to enforce public policy provisions regarding the given workforce demographics. The policies, in their turn, should not only encompass the notion of employment security because meeting the diversity requirements without meaningful contribution to the issue is rather superficial.
Instead, health care leaders are to make sure that minority groups are treated well and respected both in the team and in terms of communication with patients. For example, the cases when patients refuse to be diagnosed by a woman or an ethnic minority specialist because of race and gender biases should immediately become a concern of administration (Premkumar et al., 2018). Finally, it should be mentioned that the health care sector is considered as a trendsetting workforce framework in terms of employment and policies involved. For this reason, the pace of diversity embracement observed currently is not sufficient in order to secure a meaningful shift towards equality, as it is likely that change would be less visible across other industries.
Conclusion
Diversity and equality in the workplace have recently become some of the most important notions in terms of successful workforce management and administration. Hence, the primary goal of the present paper was to examine the patterns of diversity in the context of modern health care, with major emphasis placed on the concepts of gender and ethnic diversity. The first part of the research was dedicated to the field’s background. It has been estimated that the current patterns of health care management are primarily concerned with providing accessible care to social groups. As a result, with rapidly increasing demands for primary care, the workforce experiences severe shortage rates.
The second part of the research was dedicated directly to the analysis of diversity within the setting. Having closely examined the reports provided by the US HHS and Diversity Best Practices, it was defined that the health care sector struggled with achieving the desired equality rates. The discrepancies are primarily found in the payment rates and leadership opportunities. An important aspect to consider in the setting is the fact that women prevail in number considerably when it comes to the workforce. Yet, they are limited in their career opportunities due to implicit gender bias present in the field. Being a major part of the national workforce, the health care sector should take immediate measures to embrace diversity in the working environment, provide proper support for minority groups’ education, and introduce local equality policies.
References
Diversity Best Practices. (2017a). The state of diversity & inclusion in the healthcare industry: Part 1 – industry overview [PDF document]. Web.
Diversity Best Practices. (2017b). The state of diversity & inclusion in the healthcare industry: Part 2 – next generation healthcare workforce & workplace [PDF document]. Web.
Premkumar, A., Whetstone, S., & Jackson, A. V. (2018). Beyond silence and inaction: Changing the response to experiences of racism in the health care workforce. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 132(4), 820-827.
Scarborough, W. J., Lambouths III, D. L., & Holbrook, A. L. (2019). Support of workplace diversity policies: The role of race, gender, and beliefs about inequality. Social Science Research, 79, 194-210. Web.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA, & National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. (2017). Sex, race, and ethnic diversity of U.S. health occupations (2011-2015) [PDF document]. Web.
Wilbur, K., Snyder, C., Essary, A. C., Reddy, S., Will, K. K., & Saxon, M. (2020). Developing workforce diversity in the health professions: A social justice perspective. Health Professions Education, 6(2), 222-229. Web.