BWH Nurses Make Diversifying a Priority
Increasing diversity among health care providers has been identified as one strategy to eliminate racial health disparities. The BWH Department of Nursing has embraced this work and is committed to increasing the diversity of its workforce through several initiatives. The Diversity Nursing Group, which is leading these efforts, held its first forum in October to generate ideas for increasing diversity in all patient care areas in order to reflect the communities that we serve and to better serve our patients
BWH boasts the second most diverse nursing workforce in Boston, with 8 percent of its nursing staff from under-represented racial and ethnic backgrounds. However, that remains well below the racial demographics of BWH’s patient population and the communities the hospital serves. Each year, on average, 250 to 350 nurses are hired at BWH, and 14 percent of them are from multicultural backgrounds.
“To ensure patients receive the best care, we need our workforce to be more culturally competent and understanding of the needs of our diverse patient populations,” said Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Patient Care Services. “Our nursing staff and our leadship teams should reflect the patient population we care for.”
Joyce Thomas-Browning, RN, nurse manager on the Thoracic Surgical Unit, and Patrice Nicholas, DNSc, MPH, RN, ANP, director of Global Health and Academic Partnerships in the Center for Nursing Excellence, have teamed up through a Dennis Thomson Compasionate Care Scholarship Award to support the development of the Nursing Diversity Group.
With the Thomson Award, they developed this important Diversity Nursing Group aimed at enhancing compassionate, culturally-competent care and mentoring our diverse nursing workforce.
Nicholas and Thomas-Browning led the discussion during the first forum, which drew approximately 30 clinical and administrative staff. For example, the group discussed the importance of a professional nursing staff that brings many talents and skills to the health care team including the ability to share language and culture with our BWH patients.
In addition, the group talked about programs to help staff advance at BWH. Angelleen Peters-Lewis, PhD, RN, director of the Women’s and Newborn Nursing and Clinical Services, said, “It’s important to help our staff such as patient care assistants navigate the educational system, and to offer support for them.”
Other suggestions included looking to colleges and universities to develop relationships with their multicultural student populations and attract these students and graduates to BWH. Specific programs in nursing include recruiting nurses currently enrolled in baccalaureate and graduate programs who are from diverse backgrounds, offering scholarships to nursing employees of multicultural backgrounds who seek further education, and working with Partners HealthCare on the diversity initiatives. Partners and the University of Massachusetts Boston have developed a Clinical Leadership Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing which was launched in November 2007. Multicultural students at the University of Massachusetts Boston have received scholarships to support their baccalaureate education and will benefit by having student clinical experiences at BWH and other Partners institutions.
Cultural Nursing Grand Rounds occur monthly sponsored by the Center for Nursing Excellence with presentations that highlight culturally-competent care. One presentation featured Egidia Rugwizangoga BSN, RN, who was born in Rwanda and now practices at BWH on the Plastic Surgery/Urology service. Rugwizangoga and Leslie Sabatino RN, BSN, and Ceeya Patton-Bolman, RN, MSN presented on the history, demography and health care issues in Rwanda and volunteer efforts by the physicians and nurses of the BWH Cardiac Surgical Service that are planned for April 2008 in Kigali, Rwanda.
“Everyone at BWH is committed to increasing diversity and delivering culturally competent care,” said Peters-Lewis.
The monthly forum is the third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. in the Duncan Reid Conference Room