Discrimination in nursing manifests in various ways and at different levels. Patients may reject nurses of color and request white nurses. At the institutional level, healthcare organizations may fail to hire diverse nursing staffs that reflect the communities they serve, or pass over nurses of color for leadership positions. And nurses — who aren’t immune to implicit bias — may make treatment decisions rooted in cultural, racial and gender stereotypes that can leave patients with inadequate pain management, inaccurate diagnoses and poor health outcomes.
Just how prevalent is the problem? In a recent PLOS One study, 40 percent of nurses who responded reported experiencing discrimination in healthcare settings.
Discrimination in nursing not only affects the ability of healthcare facilities to provide optimal patient care. It also perpetuates health disparities. For this reason, nurse leaders need to develop and promote strategies that combat discrimination in healthcare settings. Programs, such as online post-master’s nursing certificates, offer nurse leaders opportunities to build the expertise needed to tackle discrimination and other issues that exacerbate inequalities in healthcare.