Benefits to Having a Diverse Nursing Staff at Assisted Living Facilities

Diversity in our economy has been a growing movement for the last few decades. Through the combined efforts of brave people from generations past the inequalities that have been systematically present throughout much of American society have gone through dramatic changes in the years hence. As the years go by organizations are consistently recognizing that the implementation of operating procedures that maintain healthy diversity comes with a slew of benefits.

One of which being that it is through a diverse workforce that multiple perspectives come together to form greater compassion, knowledge, and understanding of how, together, people can make the world a better place. Healthcare already carries so much of that wanted-ness and mission as its foundations, to care for individuals and communities regardless of age, gender, race, religious affiliation or the like.

The insights that occur as a result of cooperation between people groups constantly adds insights to advance technology which, when released back into the economies through businesses and services advance human capacity to prosper.

With that encouragement and affirmation has brought a change to not only socio-economic positions, but nearly every other aspect of American society. Despite all these changes and evolutions, one of the most vital public services has always been the healthcare system.

Sadly, racial tensions complicated even this human right of access to care. The good news is that, as with all the other sectors that are purposefully shifting to create more diverse groups, the healthcare industry has made great strides as well. These efforts are now influencing a subsect of that industry, assisted living facilities.

The following paragraphs are some thoughts on how and why a diverse nursing staff benefits the assisted living facilities industry.

Benefits of Diversity: Resident Fulfillment

It has long been the goal of most assisted living facilities to help and encourage residents to maintain a healthy balance of exercise, hobbies, social engagement, and continued learning. This has been proven to length and enhance quality of life.

When a facility employs a diverse staff from differing socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds, there is a much higher likelihood that the various residents will be more inclined to connect with workers who share their relative life experiences. This relatability breaks down barriers that would typically be harder to cross emotionally, especially in aged individuals who are already wary of new experiences, relationships, and especially certain types of care that are a bit more involved.

Maintaining a diverse staff creates more opportunities for comfort, understanding, and compassion from people of similar demographics. This is not just true of the residents — who are obviously the focus of care in such an organization— but the nursing staff as well. Creating a work environment that is healthy emotionally, where the staff feels and sees a balance of representation from various cultural backgrounds will help them to feel a greater sense of belonging, value, and encourage more opportunities for interconnectedness.

Creativity

Hiring a diverse nursing staff tends to breed more creative thinking and problem solving. The collaborative efforts of people from different backgrounds— both RN’s and nurse practitioners—  brings a wider knowledge base into issues of everyday life increasing the availability of new, and innovative ideas of how to improve patient care.

A larger set of experiences removes biases in training, knowledge, techniques, and social behavior. Bringing more associates from diverse backgrounds creates a pool of experiences that help balance discussions allowing teams to assess options and create solutions more often and with greater confidence.

Greater Flexibility with Multicultural Workforce

Staffing and scheduling can go smoothly, or it can be a consistent headache for administrators. An assisted living facility that employs nurses from a greater pool of diverse backgrounds creates new opportunities for the consistent accommodation of health care workers preferences for working hours.

Every culture has its own holidays, religious or otherwise, and while many here in the US observe the more traditional American holidays, there are plenty of other people groups that are indifferent to those traditions. Employees that have different cultural or religious affiliations have holidays and vacation requests that vary from what may be the majority request.

From a scheduling standpoint, this frees up more availability and flexibility for other people to be able to cover the shifts that another would be greatly inconvenienced to have to take. Additionally, this type of diversity spills over into patient care. If there are residents from other countries who are unfamiliar with American holidays, they may feel left out. Having employees around that share those observations for holidays makes that resilience feel more seen, and cared for because they have people to relate to.

Conclusion

Acknowledging that diversity is a fact of modern life is a great step in creating effective workforces in assisted living facilities, but the hiring, training, and empowerment of the nurses creates benefits that should never be overlooked in health care.

Having the capacity as an organization to support and celebrate cultural differences, whether through knowledge and experience, or simply upbringing creates a healthier, happier, and more effective service for employees and the residents they are serving.