title: Are we reaching the healthcare consumer?
abstract: With the diversity of our communities and waiting rooms increasing, can we continue to justify the lack of diversity among healthcare professionals? This article reports the demographic composition of the U.S. and compares those data with the professional healthcare workforce. With a non-White population of nearly 25%, only 10% of RNs are non-White and about 12% of medical students are non-White. Four reasons are presented for increasing diversity among healthcare professionals. These four include: improved culturally competent care, access to healthcare, healthcare outcomes and research, and provider access in high-need service areas. Healthcare organizations have gone on record as supporting increased diversity within high-skilled healthcare professions but without a commitment to increasing enrollments in professional healthcare programs, diversity goals will never be reached.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, State University of West Georgia, Carrollton, USA.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D002961:Civil Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011822:Race Relations / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States