DiversityNursing Blog

by Megen Duffy

For: http://onlinelpntorn.org

It just occurred to me that the new health exchange insurance policies could change the nursing career marketplace and give nurses a lot of new employment options: we can play job Tetris. Why? Read on.

Before the individual policies were available, nurses without spouses or another source of health insurance were bound to full-time work with benefits unless they opted to live dangerously. Individual policies were just totally unaffordable (I used to pay about $1,000 per month for an individual policy when I was self-employed). Now they are affordable, and they are particularly so if you consider the salary differential between full-time and PRN hourly wages. It is usually significant.

This one factor allows some mix-and-match in job searches. Perhaps your dream job has a part-time position available, so you take that and pick up PRN shifts somewhere else. Perhaps you have interests in two areas, so you find PRN positions in both. Perhaps it even works out financially for you to work full-time hours as a PRN nurse where you already are, if you work at one of the hospitals where PRN nurses can always pick and choose hours (this plan will not work if PRN hours are what they were intended to be and not guaranteed).

Disclaimer: this does not include other benefits such as retirement contributions and term life insurance that are generally offered, nor does it generally offer paid time off. Speaking as someone who was self-employed for a decade, I can readily state that employer matching for retirement and paid time off are benefits worth accepting a lower hourly rate than I would get for PRN status. However, I know that for many people health insurance is the sticking point, and for those people a whole new world may have just opened up.

Of course, your mileage may vary with the exchange policies versus a group insurance policy with an employer. I have found so far that with mine, the benefits are either similar to or better than the group policy I used to have, and I even bought a lower-tier policy because I thought it would be much more temporary than it has ended up being. They really do cover preventive screens and such at 100%. They really do pay what they say they will for copays and prescriptions, and this was not the case for my group policy. There was always an exception. As I say, this is my mileage only.

Just think, though, of the possibilities. This is important given the tight job market for nurses right now. What if you were not tied to benefits? Do you have a hobby or a sideline you could monetize and be a nurse two shifts per week? Do you have a previous career you could still put to use part time and pick up shifts now and then as a nurse?

Thinking of job opportunities this way opens up a new range of options if you are willing to, I hate to say it, think outside the box. Just keep in mind the question, “What if I didn’t have to look just in the full-time section?”

by Jennifer Mensik for ERE

Regardless of the interview style or methodology used, there is one question that everyone should ask of a registered nurse in an interview. This includes all positions, from staff RN to Chief Nursing Officer.

What is your definition of nursing?

This helps you to sort out whether you have a professional-role-based RN or one who might only be there for the paycheck. A professional-role-based RN is a nurse who understands the complexities of the profession and is committed to placing the patient first, as opposed to a tas- based RN who is there to just clock time and take home a paycheck. If your organization prefers behavioral-based questions, take that question to the next level as a two-part question by asking the RN candidate to give you an example of when they exemplified the definition they just gave you.

You might say, “Are not all RNs professionals?” One just needs to understand the components of a profession to know that there are RNs in the profession who are not professional. Let me explain by starting with the sort of definition you are looking for and then I will touch on the difference between a technical and professional RN.

The American Nurses Association defines nursing as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.” That is a long definition that many RNs will not be able to give you verbatim. However, the professional RN should be able to talk about and say things that are of a very similar nature. The responses between the professional and technical RN will be very different. Most times when I have asked this question, it has stumped many nurses, or was the one they needed the most time to think about before they were able to give their response.

The type of answers you want from a professional RN are statements or an explanation of caring, kindness, ethical, and wholistic care of the entire patient, an understanding that the RN is a professional who is accountable for themselves, and understands that they have a duty to society to place the patient first.

The technical, less desirable answer is when the RN describes their profession as a set of tasks, like medication administration, bathing, assessments, budgets, staffing, or worse yet, someone who assists the physician. While you might expect your RN candidate to do those things and to be competent in those areas, the professional RN understands that. It is a given that part of the professional responsibilities is to carry out tasks and orders, but it is in the manner in which they do it. The technical RN does not understand how to be professional, or worse yet, may not want to be a professional.

Can you teach a technical RN to be professional? I suppose, but only if they are open to it. This is not a simple task they can learn, but a way of being. A professional RN understands their role as a RN, their accountability to the patient and the family, their coworkers, and the organization, and will hold others to the highest standard of patient care.

This type of RN embodies what we want to see in our nurses, like Florence Nightingale. Florence could easily point out the technical nurse. Those who only work as a RN because it’s a good paying, stable job, and where you only have to work three 12-hour shifts; the one who does the minimum to maintain their employment and the minimum to maintain their own education, skills, and professional standards. It is those who do not say anything when another RN or staff member may be jeopardizing patient safety as it’s “not their responsibility” to hold others accountable. Professional RNs do hold each other accountable for quality and safe patient care.

Your next steps:

Recruiters: Have a discussion with your nurse executive on whether this is a question they would like to you ask. Talk with you nurse executive about their nursing philosophy for the organization and how they would like to see RN candidates answer that question.

Nurse managers: What is your philosophy about nursing? Can you articulate it and share with your recruiters so that the right candidates could be screened early in the process? Even if used in the early stages of recruitment,  still include this question in the onsite interview process with the candidate and yourself or the team. Ensure your team who maybe interviewing the RN candidate understands this question and the type of response you want.

As organizations struggle to improve quality measures and patient satisfaction, which type of RN do you want on your team? The professional RN will help your organization obtain success in these areas. If an RN can give you a professional-based answer for the definition of nursing, you are halfway there in choosing the right candidate for your patients and organization.

Adrian Espinosa is part of a still extremely small but growing trend in nursing. He’s a man.

Espinosa, now a student at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing, said he quickly became aware that he is a man in a field that continues to be dominated by women.

“From the first day I started nursing school last year, as one of seven males in a class of 77, I realized that I would have to find my fit in a predominately female profession,” Espinosa said. His goal is to become a nurse practitioner “to fulfill a huge gap in primary care for under-represented populations.”

 In a 2012 essay written for the American Assembly for Men in Nursing Scholarship, Espinosa said his route to his chosen career was anything but direct.

“My journey into nursing wasn’t immediate, but my path was illuminated when I began working in community public health,” Espinosa wrote. “Watching nurses and nurse practitioners work with diverse populations inspired me to pursue the nursing culture in the hope of providing accessible care for marginalized communities.

 The nursing community knows it needs more people like Espinosa in its ranks and it is working hard to increasing nurse diversity.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, in 2008, there were 3,063,163 licensed registered nurses in the United States. Only 6.6% of those were men and 16.8% were non-Caucasian. Despite efforts from nursing schools across the nation to recruit and retain more men and minorities, the results have been fairly modest.  In 2010, approximately 11% of the students in BSN programs were men and 26.8% were a racial/ethnic minority.

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This is one reason why the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND prides itself on  providing "a nursing education for leadership and moral courage" and places an emphasis on diversity.

“U-Mary is a community of learners that recognizes and respects diversity and the richness it brings to the college experience,” according the catalog of the private, Catholic university that offers degree completion and advanced nursing degrees online and on campus.

University of Mary prides itself as “community that fosters diversity through hospitality and dialogue so as to learn to live in an interconnected world.”

Why are more men and people of color needed in today’s nursing ranks? To help meet the medical and personal needs of the United States’ increasingly diverse patient population that is adding varied ethnic, racial and cultural traditions to the country. Patient stories such as these from the University of California, San Francisco are good examples.

• Selena Martinez was diagnosed with Lynch Syndrome, a genetic disease that can lead to a wide-range of cancers. It wasn't until 2008 that the Martinez family, which in just 16 years had 13 cancer diagnoses among nine people, received a conclusive diagnosis of Lynch Syndrome.
• Simone Chou, was in her last year at the University of California, Berkeley when she learned she had lupus and that her immune system was attacking her kidneys. After nine years of treatment failed to slow the deterioration, Chou and her doctors launched a nationwide search to find a compatible kidney donor. They didn’t have far to look. Michael Wong, a college friend, stepped up. Wong, a practicing Buddhist, had read many stories about Buddhist saints who donated their body parts to other people. "When I first heard Simone talk about needing a kidney transplant, I remembered those stories."
• Doris Ward is one of the pioneering African-American politicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. She started her career as a trustee of the San Francisco Community College District, became a County Supervisor in 1980, President of the Board of Supervisors in 1990 and finally moved on to spend the last 10 years as the San Francisco County Assessor. She is also a breast cancer survivor. Ward now helps other African-American women through their own journey with cancer by sending them information and helping them understand their options.

“Nursing’s leaders recognize a strong connection between a culturally diverse nursing workforce and the ability to provide quality, culturally competent patient care,” according to a policy statement by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

 “Though nursing has made great strides in recruiting and graduating nurses that mirror the patient population, more must be done before adequate representation becomes a reality,” the association statement added.

The University of Mary is ready to help ensure that the nursing ranks reflect the diversity of our nation. For a welcoming environment, online or on campus, to get your advanced practice nursing degree, contact the University of Mary.

By Brian Womack - for Bloomberg

Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s largest social-networking service, is seeking a global head of diversity, as the quickly expanding company’s recruits people from different backgrounds to foster creativity.

The position includes responsibilities around employee recruitment, development and retention, the company said on its website. The diversity chief will build and manage a team focused on diversity, according to the posting.

Facebook, grappling with large rivals such as Google Inc. is ramping up hiring, growing 44 percent to 4,619 employees in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said last month the company plans to “continue to grow our headcount quickly in 2013.”

“We’re a fast-growing company, and this role will help us formalize processes that ensure we scale our diversity at the same rate,” Slater Tow, a spokesman for Facebook, said in an e- mailed statement. “In the past, our diversity and inclusion efforts were decentralized amongst many employees and, given our stage of growth, we are consolidating our work and people into one team.”

Among Facebook’s efforts is a new search service the company began to roll out last month. The company is also bolstering its mobile offerings, including an upgrade to its application for smartphones based on Google’s Android software.

While Facebook’s staff is growing quickly, it’s still much smaller than some of its rivals. Google, for example, has more than 10 times as many people.

The diversity position will be based at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

“We’ve always focused on recruiting the very best and brightest,” Tow said. “We are big believers that creativity happens with people who have different perspectives and background.”

Black History Month Facts & Figures

 

 

This article is an excerpt from Diversity Best Practices' new book, the HR Executive Diversity Primer.

What’s the best way to structure a diversity function? The answer is as individual as companies themselves. Let’s look at three organizations—Sodexo, Johnson & Johnson, and Rockwell Automation—that have established different, yet equally effective, configurations of their diversity offices.

Sodexo, Inc.

With 400,000 employees across the globe (125,000 in North America) and operations in 33,400 sites in 82 countries, Sodexo is among the world’s top 25 employers, as a provider of integrated food services and facilities management. Betsy Silva Hernandez, Sodexo’s senior director for corporate diversity and inclusion, describes the corporate culture as high touch with an orientation toward action. It’s a high-touch culture, because the company is very relationship based and uses the power of influence to drive its diversity efforts. Its action orientation shows up as the company’s business leaders push for quick results, yet they also want the diversity strategy to be customized to their local context.

Silva Hernandez explains how the company’s decentralized structure is reflected in the structure of the diversity office. Depending on the location of a regional market (North America, Europe, Central or South America, and others), the company uses multiple infrastructure models. The decentralized model is further intensified by its French ownership, which brings its own inclusion issues. While the structure has evolved over time, the formal diversity effort began in 2002 with the creation of the company’s diversity leadership council. 

Along with the North American CEO, this council was charged with developing the diversity and inclusion strategy, setting priorities, and providing oversight for the effort. Later the strategy was broadened to include a committee of operational leaders comprised of members from the executive committee and market presidents. Their task was to implement the strategy and embed it throughout the organization by working with the company’s Cross Market Diversity Council (CMDC) and its employee business resource groups (EBRGs). The CMDC and EBRGs provide the grassroots support for inclusion initiatives. According to Silva Hernandez, this structure represents a top-down, middle-out, bottom-up approach to the inclusion strategy.

The efforts of Sodexo’s diversity and inclusion team on behalf of 125,000 North American employees, and influencing 270,000 other employees in locations around the world, are augmented by its EBRG members and other volunteers across the organization. Volunteer impact is monumental. For example, roughly 90 percent of Sodexo’s 25,000 North American managers participate in EBRGs. And the EBRGs are instrumental in how the company delivers its inclusion results. 

Volunteers may provide the much-needed resources to drive the inclusion efforts. However, as Sodexo’s Chief Diversity Officer Rohini Anand explains, the inclusion strategy is also based on the shared services model. The corporation provides and funds support services for the entire corporation, with local operations furnishing additional resources. Yet, even a company as committed to diversity as Sodexo has had to face the realities of a global economy. For two consecutive years, Silva Hernandez has seen the diversity budget cut, while responsibilities have increased. The Sodexo diversity office has had to deliver more with less money.

While Sodexo’s North American diversity strategy is only 10 years old, it is considered a mature, highly regarded function. Companies across the globe use Sodexo as the benchmark they aspire to reach. The company also illustrates the evolving nature of the diversity function.

Initially, Anand reported to the senior vice president of HR. Soon after, diversity was repositioned so that she reported to North American CEO George Chavel, and now she has a bifurcated reporting relationship to both the North American CEO and Global CEO Michel Landel. Although her area no longer reports directly to HR, Anand explains that both areas enjoy a strong partnership. “We’re separate, but we’re strong partners,” she says.

The diversity department has changed in the past and Anand understands that it could change again. “Diversity was a part of HR, then separated from HR, and depending on the needs of the organization, we would certainly recalibrate that relationship,” she said. “Obviously, our effort continues to be a work in progress."

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a global leader in healthcare, consumer products, pharmaceutical products, and medical devices. It’s a 125-year-old company with $65 billion in revenues. J&J’s Smita Pillai, director of global diversity and inclusion, medical devices and diagnostics, explains that J&J’s culture is best considered a hybrid between a lean culture at its headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J., and a more high-touch culture in its 250 operating companies that span 57 countries across the globe.

J&J’s structure also mirrors its hybrid culture, which is decentralized at the regional and local levels but supported by a more-centralized core strategy in its corporate offices. In this way, J&J’s global diversity and inclusion office has the best of both worlds. The central office establishes an overall strategy and provides some independent funding, while the local companies roll out the strategy and allocate funding from their budgets to support diversity initiatives.

According to Pillai, the company’s CDO reports directly to the CEO, and manages six director-level direct reports. With an annual budget of $5 million, the diversity function numbers about 16 employees, including directors and administrative assistants. Pillai said Johnson & Johnson can’t run a global diversity operation with the current structure at the corporate level, so the diversity function works in close partnership with HR and its teams.

While J&J’s office of diversity and inclusion has a well-deserved reputation, internally and externally, as an established leading-edge operation, Pillai recognizes that its structure may evolve as the company adapts to an ever-changing global landscape.

 

Rockwell Automation

With more than 20,000 employees, revenues of $6.2 billion and operations in 80 countries, Rockwell Automation is a business-to-business firm that is a leading provider of integrated systems for process manufacturing. According to Joan Buccigrossi, director of global inclusion and engagement, the diversity department was deliberately and strategically structured to serve as an inside consultant to the leaders and managers of the company. The responsibility for creating a culture of inclusion rests totally with the company’s leaders, not with HR.

With only two part-time staff members in the diversity office, Buccigrossi operates in a lean culture with a highly matrixed structure that leverages the power of influence across the organization. While she reports to the senior vice president of HR, Buccigrossi explains that her customers are the company’s business and function leaders, who initiate actions and develop the diversity direction. In this way, HR does not set the inclusion agenda or its engagement strategy. That’s done by Rockwell’s leaders and managers. “The danger of housing diversity in HR is that it can make the effort more of an initiative, something being done to leaders, rather than an effort they are intimately involved in,” Buccigrossi said.

“At Rockwell, leaders and managers are change agents.”

As in many firms, HR provides needed metrics, encourages tough conversations, and challenges and supports leaders and managers, Buccigrossi said. It is the department heads and their employees who fund the strategy and take ownership to ensure it succeeds. She cites an example with the North America sales division. The department decided that all managers and employees receive specialized education in order for everyone to become change agents. The department funded the effort and played a key role in the design and implementation of the learning modules. “The education is much more effective than any ‘training’ pushed out from HR would have been” she added.

While Buccigrossi’s diversity function does not have a budget, for real, the company’s functional leaders are prepared to support diversity initiatives from their funds. This arrangement works well for Rockwell. Everyone remembers 2008 and 2009, when the global and national economies were reeling from the fiscal freefall and companies were tightening their belts. In 2009, Rockwell’s diversity office was able to spend significant dollars on inclusion initiatives for employees. How? The business functions believed that such training was valuable and provided the necessary funding.

While Rockwell’s inclusion and engagement (I&E) department is tiny, in reality, the diversity and inclusion team consists of everyone in the company. According to Buccigrossi, all diversity and inclusion work is done by the people in the businesses and functional areas. They created Inclusion Change teams, which are tasked with performing cultural assessments, identifying barriers to inclusion, planning and executing actions to remove those barriers, and measuring results. Rockwell also uses rotational staffing assignments in I&E for up-and-coming and established leaders, although participants keep their day jobs. 

According to Buccigrossi, the consultant approach works well for Rockwell, because it blends in with the company’s culture and structure. This is how everyone works and business objectives are met. As a result, the consultant model reflects the current corporate environment and drives its inclusion strategy.

This is a great snapshot done by CareerBuilder of Diversity in the workplace.

 

This is a great video by Global Novations on Defining Diversity and Inclusion

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
August 22, 2012

Black and Latino children were more likely than white children to be obese, witness gun violence and ride in a car without a seat belt, according to a study released Wednesday.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found wide ethnic and racial disparities in health behaviors among fifth-graders in Los Angeles, Houston and Birmingham, Ala.

“The disparities were pretty substantial across so many different health indicators,” said lead researcher Mark Schuster, a Harvard Medical School professor and chief of general pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital.  “The breadth of the findings was striking to us.”

The researchers examined 16 health behaviors, including cigarette smoking, alcohol use, exercise habits, terrorism fears, bike helmet use and psychological quality of life.

Many of the behaviors carry potential for lifelong health problems, Schuster said. For example, researchers found that obesity rates were twice as high among black and Latino children, placing those children at increased risk for diabetes and heart problems. Black children were also more likely to be bullied, smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol than white and Latino youths.

Parents’ education and income played a critical role in the disparities, according to the study. Researchers also found that schools had a huge influence on children’s behavior, and that there were differences among schools even in the same neighborhoods.

Researchers interviewed more than 5,000 fifth-graders and their parents between 2004 and 2006. Schuster said the team focused on 10- and 11-year-olds because there was already significant research and public awareness about risky behaviors among adolescents.

“Finding disparities this young suggests that we have to start young to try to address them,” he said. “There is a strong likelihood that these disparities will persist unless we intervene to change them.”