diversity in healthcare essay

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The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Healthcare Workforce

Diversity and inclusion are terms that have been used widely in a variety of contexts, but these concepts have only been intertwined into the discussion in healthcare in the recent past. It is important to have a healthcare workforce which represents the tapestry of our communities as it relates to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, physical disability status, and socioeconomic level to render the best possible care to our diverse patient populations. We explore efforts by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and other medical organizations to improve diversity and inclusion in medicine. Finally, we report on best practices, frameworks, and strategies which have been utilized to improve diversity and inclusion in healthcare.

In order to explain diversity and inclusion in healthcare and beyond, the popular colloquialism has been dispersed on social media outlets originally coined by diversity advocate, Verna Myers, “ Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.” While many believe this to be a gross oversimplification of these issues, it does provide context regarding how we can began to understand and address these issues in healthcare. Throughout all facets of healthcare, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, physical disability status, socioeconomic level plays a role in representation, acceptance, and progress both within and outside of the healthcare setting. We will evaluate the current status of diversity and inclusion in healthcare and note strategies to achieve success in this domain.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is the US Department of Education body which accredits programs leading to the M.D. degree in the U.S. and Canada, and it is jointly sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA). 1 In 2009, they developed 2 diversity accreditation standards which mandated that allopathic medical schools engage in systematic efforts to attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds and develop programs to broaden diversity amongst qualified applicants. 2 In a recent publication to evaluate the impact of these LCME diversity standards, Boatwright and colleagues conducted an observational study to examine the change in US medical school matriculant sex, race, and ethnicity after their implementation. 3 After implementation of the LCME diversity accreditation standards (2012–2017), there was an increase in female, black, and Hispanic matriculants in medical schools in the US. In 2017, 50.4% of matriculants identified as female, 7.3% as black, 8.9% as Hispanic, 24.6% as Asian, and 58.9% as white. 3 While there is some progress, the current number of medical school matriculants does not mirror the population of black and Hispanic persons in the US which is 14.1% 4 and 17% 5 , respectively.

Within medical specialties, problems with diversity training emerge. Let’s explore nuances regarding diversity in physician trainees from underrepresented minorities in medicine and the patients that they serve in several key specialties and subspecialties: internal medicine, pediatrics, and critical care. Cardinal and colleagues evaluated training of internal medicine residents with regard to the care of patients with limited English proficiency. They found that an effective training curriculum is necessary, but such a curriculum is not uniformly present. 6 In an evaluation on standards in pediatrics, Mendoza and colleagues distributed an 8-question survey to 131 US pediatric chairs to assess plans for diversity, targeted groups, departmental diversity, diversity measures, perceived success in diversity, and presence and type of cultural competency training. Approximately 50% of the chairs responded and approximately 75% reported having a plan for diversity, which targeted racial, ethnic, gender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, disabled, and social class groups. Despite these assertions, racial and ethnic diversity was limited among trainees, faculty, and leaders; there was limited information about promotion success for minority groups; and information was even more sparse for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender trainees and faculty. 7 Along similar lines, Lane-Fall and colleagues determined that the current critical care workforce in medicine has a low number of women and racial and ethnic minorities which has persisted for many years. They conclude that further research is needed to elucidate the reasons underlying persistent underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in critical care fellowship programs. 8

There is often malalignment with the perceptions and experiences of persons from racial and ethnic minority groups in academic medicine compared to majority groups with regard to their health system and its performance surrounding cultural competency. Aysola and colleagues surveyed ~3500 healthcare professionals to ascertain demographic characteristics, length of employment, position, and place of work and their reported perceptions of institutional culture. They found that minorities and women were less likely to rank their organization as culturally competent, and they concluded that organizational efforts to achieve cultural competency would benefit from measuring this factor to target their efforts. 9

Just as medicine has sought to evaluate diversity, nursing has tackled the issue also. The Institute of Medicine released its landmark report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health , which called for more racial, ethnic, and gender diversity among nurses in order to improve quality of care and reduce health disparities. 10 In 2015, Villaruel and colleagues evaluated the impact of the 2010 report and determined that there is progress, but there are also challenges that remain. 11 There has been an increase in racial and ethnic groups in nursing to 20%, but this is still short of the 37% of the US population that are considered to be racial and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, there continues to be barriers to diversity in nursing education.

So, what are systematic strategies that have been developed to address diversity and inclusion in academic medicine? What is the dialogue surrounding creating change in diversity and inclusion in medicine? Smith noted that we must build institutional capacity for diversity and inclusion in academic medicine to achieve sustained change by including a “deeper engagement of mission, one that considers diversity as core to excellence” which aligns to key institutional elements and identifies diverse talent for leadership at all levels. 12 Since diversity and inclusion are such large tasks to evaluate comprehensively, there have been different strategies proposed to address disparities in different groups. Gillespie and colleagues developed 10 best practices to achieve gender parity in global health organizations which include the following: (1) make diversity and inclusion (D&I) an essential element of global strategy, (2) tailor global D&I to fit local needs, (3) embed D&I throughout organizations, (4) multiply D&I impact via external partnerships, (5) maximize the role of employee resource groups, (6) maximize the role of diversity councils, (7) leverage D&I for innovation, (8) leverage D&I for business development, (9) engage CEO, and (10) make sharing of D&I best practices a meta best practice. 13 As we evaluate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in medicine, Eckstrand and colleagues developed a framework with elements and processes for successful lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizational change. Their key elements for success are: organizational champions, organizational priority, depth of mission, commitment to continuous learning, commitment to diversity and inclusion, and organizational resources, and their key processes for success are: change management, information exchange, action research, relationship building, values in action, and leveraging resources. 14 Regardless of which framework or strategy is utilized to improve diversity and inclusion in healthcare, Gill and colleagues note: “there is a growing understanding of the relationship between the providers’ work environments, patient outcomes, and organizational performance”. 15

Much of healthcare has jumped on the “diversity and inclusion bandwagon”, but is the change actually making a difference in the experience of health care workers and the increasingly diverse patient population to whom we render care? Many would argue that much needs to be done. It is not enough for organizations to just add a person to oversee diversity efforts- the organization as a whole must value diversity and inclusion as central to their mission and consistently assess these diverse groups of their perception of progress. Perhaps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best when he stated: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” We have much to do to truly ensure that diversity and inclusion in healthcare is the norm and not the exception.

Here are some tangible strategies to ensure diversity and inclusion in your organization: 1) Ensure that diversity and inclusion is ingrained within the culture by making it integral to the mission and outputs within the organization, 2) Integrate stakeholders from all levels of the organization and ensure that all groups are included in discussions to enact and maintain diversity and inclusion efforts, 3) Share successes and failures with similar organizations as it is this discourse that will allow the organization to reflect on strengths and weaknesses in previous diversity and inclusion strategies, and 4) Start young- engage with local communities and schools to ensure that persons from underrepresented groups get early exposure to fields in medicine. While these are only a few steps, any step forward is a step in the right direction to improve diversity and inclusion in medicine.

Grant Support:

This perspective was supported by grants NIDDK P30 DK040561 , and L30 DK118710 from the National Institutes of Health.

Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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The author has no conflicts of interest. There was no research conducted on either human participants or animals. As such, this work is exempt from ethical consideration. Additionally, no informed consent was necessary as there was no participation of human subjects.

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The Importance of Diversity in Health Care: Medical Professionals Weigh In

To provide the best possible care for all patients and help minimize racial disparities, medical professionals need to acknowledge and recognize differences among varying populations. Diversity among physicians—pertaining to socioeconomic status, race, gender identity, and so on—is key. Many physicians already recognize that a commitment to diversity is critical, yet there is still progress to be made.

To learn more about diversity in health care from the inside out, take a look at what some physicians have to say on the topic.

Exploring diversity in medicine so far

By looking at the statistics in the chart below, the medical field is still primarily white males with a smaller contingent of of females and other ethnic groups. It’s pretty clear that the medical field has a long way to go.

“Diversity in Medicine: Facts and Figures 2019” from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) touches on gender distribution among doctors , revealing that nearly two-thirds of physicians are male. However, that figure may even out over time. AAMC data comparing applicants and enrolled medical students by sex shows that females now outnumber males in US medical schools.

The same report also includes a breakdown of active physicians by race and ethnicity , which shows that more than half of practicing physicians are white, 17 percent are Asian, 6 percent are Hispanic, and 5 percent are Black. This is something that comes as no surprise to Dr. Antonio Webb, an orthopedic spine surgeon, who notes that one AAMC report found there were fewer Black male medical students in 2014 than there were in 1978. He says that when he was a child, he didn’t know any doctors who looked like him.

“My parents weren’t physicians, and I didn’t really have any mentors,” he recalls. “I kind of carved my own path—there was no YouTube back then.”

Additionally, the majority of medical students come from affluent, higher socioeconomic status backgrounds. According to An Updated Look at the Economic Diversity of U.S. Medical Students from the AAMC, more than 75 percent of medical students are from families who are in the top two quintiles for household income as identified by US census data.

While research on sexual and gender orientation as well as religious affiliation among physicians is limited, diversity in these realms is also important for developing good bedside manner and providing quality care.

How diversity in health care benefits patients

A lack of diversity in the workforce limits the capabilities of medicine, containing it within a single ethnic lens and a particular set of values. The medical workforce should instead reflect the variety of patients for which they provide care.

“It is important for physicians to be diverse in large part because our patients are diverse,” explains Dr. Lisa Doggett, a family physician. “If we can understand our patients’ belief systems and values, we will be able to provide better care for them.”

For instance, patients’ religious beliefs can similarly affect the quality of care they receive. A recent paper on cultural competence in medicine reveals the many ways in which an individual’s beliefs can affect them as a patient. Additionally, the medical research community acknowledges that health disparities among LGTBQ individuals are a significant issue. Just consider this reflection from one transgender patient.

“The more diverse the people are who provide medical care, the better they can respectfully and knowledgeably assist their patients.”

“As a transgender person, it’s very difficult to access health care with competent providers knowledgeable about transgender health care,” explains Jordan Rubenstein of Ellevest . “The more diverse the people are who provide medical care, the better they can respectfully and knowledgeably assist their patients.”

When a patient cannot find providers that resemble them, their beliefs, their culture, or other facets of their life, they run the risk of not being understood or being able to receive the appropriate treatment. One clear example of this is the extreme divide in health outcomes for expecting mothers based on race. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals Black and native women are two to three times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white women.

A more diverse physician workforce also makes needed care more accessible to patients who might otherwise be overlooked—research on primary care physician distribution shows that practitioners who are from minority racial and ethnic groups are much more likely to work in underserved communities than their white counterparts.

How diversity in health care benefits providers

Physicians themselves could enjoy a better quality of life as a result of a more diverse health care workforce. Doctors who are part of an underrepresented group are often able to build incredibly strong relationships with the minority individuals they serve.

“I find that I can better relate to my patients,” Dr. Webb says.

Dr. Jaydeep Tripathy, a UK-based primary care physician at DoctorSpring , notes there are other benefits to working with people from a variety of backgrounds as well. “Diversity in the workplace, in my opinion, fosters a greater sense of identity and culture, making me feel better and more rewarded at work,” he says.

This diversity can go a long way toward improving morale and reminding physicians why they became doctors in the first place. It also encourages physicians to expand their horizons.

“We run the risk of becoming shortsighted or boxed in to a particular way of thinking when everyone is the same,” Dr. Doggett explains. “We lose a certain richness and opportunity to learn from one another. We, as individual clinicians, are certainly affected when there is a lack of diversity, but our patients are impacted even more.”

Diversity in health care starts at the beginning

To truly work toward a more diverse, more equitable health care system, it’s critical to reach potential physicians as early as possible. “There should be more of a focus on exposing kids to careers in medicine,” Dr. Webb says, who is actively involved in this effort through his video interview series . “Hospitals and schools can create more pipeline programs,” he adds.

Additionally, diversity efforts must continue into medical school , which can be achieved through a more holistic admissions process. When classes are more diverse, all students benefit from broadened perspectives. Diverse classrooms help students improve active thinking, intellectual engagement, social skills, empathy, and racial understanding—all critical components to a physician’s education. Research even shows that cross-cultural interactions during medical school help students feel better prepared to serve diverse populations later on.

“Doctors are required to be competent not only in medicine but also in communication and caring for people with different disease burdens, socio-cultural realities, expectations, values, and beliefs,” explains  Dr. Satesh Bidaisee , a professor of public health and preventive medicine and assistant dean for the School of Graduate Studies at St. George’s University. “Doctors of today need a global competence to understand the diverse populations they serve.” He feels it’s the responsibility of medical schools to provide this competence for students, who in turn will provide nuanced care for patients of all walks of life.

Diversity in health care matters

Diversity in health care helps ensure all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, and perspectives are adequately represented in the medical field. It’s about providing the best possible care for all patients.

If you’re interested in a career in medicine and want to gain an edge with a global perspective, then learn more by reading our article, “ 6 Little-Known Perks of Attending an International Medical School .”

*This article was originally published in December 2018. It has since been updated to reflect information relevant to 2021.

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Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Patient Safety

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Meghan B. Lane-Fall; Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Patient Safety. ASA Monitor 2021; 85:42 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ASM.0000798588.38346.fc

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The recent focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has highlighted many of the ways that individuals and organizations in health care are fallible; for example, by making decisions informed by social group membership instead of factors more germane to such decisions. We make patient care safer in part by introducing routinization and standardization and by engineering systems that are resilient in the face of human fallibility. It may seem, then, that the steps we take to ensure safety would obviate DEI concerns. In reality, we encounter DEI issues in much of the safety work that we do as members of the anesthesia and perioperative care team. Confronting and learning from these issues can make us better clinicians and team members.

As a leader in DEI, I find it helpful to ground conversations in this space with operational definitions of terms often used imprecisely. Diversity is a characteristic of groups (i.e., a single person cannot be “diverse”) that indicates a range of lived experience ( Acad Med 2015;90:1675-83 ). I think of characteristics that shape peoples' perspectives on the world, work, problem solving, and relationships to other people. In the U.S., conversations about diversity often center on race, ethnicity, and gender identity, but many additional aspects of experience are relevant to safe patient care, including age, languages spoken, physical mobility, body size, handedness, and visual acuity, to name just a few. Equity is about fairness and includes both opportunity and addressing barriers (Organizational Behavior, Theory, and Design in Health Care. 3rd edition, 2021). This might manifest as avoiding dissimilar treatment for similar behaviors, such as women and men being treated differently for speaking directly or raising their voice. I think of inclusion as a sense of belonging, which requires an organizational culture that welcomes differing perspectives. Inclusion does not mean that consensus needs to be achieved in all decisions, but an inclusive culture is one with strong psychological safety and the ability to take “interpersonal risks” like speaking one's mind without a fear of ridicule, retribution, or censure ( Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 2014;1:23-43 ). Importantly, the organizational benefits of diversity depend critically on inclusion (Organizational Behavior, Theory, and Design in Health Care. 3rd edition, 2021).

“In reality, we encounter DEI issues in much of the safety work that we do as members of the anesthesia and perioperative care team. Confronting and learning from these issues can make us better clinicians and team members.”

What does this have to do with safety? Let's think about our clinical environment as work systems, as engineers do. In one human factors model, we think about the work system as having five basic components: the care team, tools and technologies, the physical environment, organizational conditions , and the tasks we perform ( Appl Ergon 2020;84:103033 ). I submit that DEI is relevant to all five of these components. Many recent articles have focused on the value of diverse and inclusive care teams. Here I focus on the perhaps less obvious intersections between DEI and the remaining four parts of the work system. A unifying theme across these work system elements is that diversity, equity, and inclusion are necessary to build and maintain systems that are responsive to different team members under a broad range of clinical conditions.

In considering tools and technologies , the concepts of usability and bias are relevant to DEI. Human factors engineers are trained to consider the needs of diverse groups in designing products like machines or software to be usable. Buttons, for example, should be operable by people regardless of dexterity, and user interfaces should be visible by people of different heights. Teams with diversity in these and other characteristics are poised to identify and ameliorate potential safety threats that can be encountered during clinical care. Diverse teams may also help identify or focus attention on bias in technologies, such as pulse oximetry and artificial intelligence ( APSF Newsletter 2021;36 ; BMJ 2020;368:m363 ).

Similar to tools and technologies, the physical environment in health care must be designed to accommodate a diverse workforce. Characteristics such as height, girth, reach, strength, dexterity, mobility, and sensory acuity all influence the way that we interact with our environment and may influence our ability to perform as expected in routine and emergent clinical scenarios (Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety. 2nd edition, 2011).

Organizational conditions and tasks are where I think equity and inclusion are most relevant. Our safety measures are developed and executed by people working in complex sociotechnical systems. For these systems to operate at peak performance, team members need to be confident that they will be treated equitably and that their perspectives will be considered in the design, evaluation, and optimization of the systems in which they work. In short, they need to perceive psychological safety. In their review of published research in health care and industry, Edmondson and Lei found that psychological safety was positively associated with organizational learning and organizational performance and that it may mitigate factors like conflict that can undermine performance ( Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 2014;1:23-43 ). Psychological safety is promoted by inviting input, listening to team members, and celebrating failures ( asamonitor.pub/3zSykTj ). It is undermined by explicit or implicit actions that exclude or alienate team members. Microaggressions (also called “subtle acts of exclusion”) experienced by marginalized groups could therefore compromise psychological safety and team functioning ( asamonitor.pub/2YArTH0 ).

As seen in other aspects of health care, like biomedical research and medical education, attention to DEI can broaden our perspectives and allow us to meet the challenges posed by shifting patient populations, innovations in care, and organizational constraints. In highlighting DEI issues relevant to our work system in anesthesia, I believe that applying this lens to safety can help us design better, more resilient, and safer teams and health care systems.

Meghan B. Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, FCCM. Vice President and Member, Board of Directors, Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, and David E. Longnecker Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Diversity — Diversity in Nursing: A Critical Analysis

Diversity in Nursing: a Critical Analysis

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

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Recruitment: fostering a diverse nursing workforce, cultural competence: navigating a diverse patient population, patient care: the impact of diversity on health outcomes.

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• How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

Published on November 1, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

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What is a diversity essay, identify how you will enrich the campus community, share stories about your lived experience, explain how your background or identity has affected your life, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

Diversity essays ask students to highlight an important aspect of their identity, background, culture, experience, viewpoints, beliefs, skills, passions, goals, etc.

Diversity essays can come in many forms. Some scholarships are offered specifically for students who come from an underrepresented background or identity in higher education. At highly competitive schools, supplemental diversity essays require students to address how they will enhance the student body with a unique perspective, identity, or background.

In the Common Application and applications for several other colleges, some main essay prompts ask about how your background, identity, or experience has affected you.

Why schools want a diversity essay

Many universities believe a student body representing different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community.

Through the diversity essay, admissions officers want students to articulate the following:

• What makes them different from other applicants
• Stories related to their background, identity, or experience
• How their unique lived experience has affected their outlook, activities, and goals

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Think about what aspects of your identity or background make you unique, and choose one that has significantly impacted your life.

For some students, it may be easy to identify what sets them apart from their peers. But if you’re having trouble identifying what makes you different from other applicants, consider your life from an outsider’s perspective. Don’t presume your lived experiences are normal or boring just because you’re used to them.

Some examples of identities or experiences that you might write about include the following:

• Race/ethnicity
• Gender identity
• Sexual orientation
• Nationality
• Socioeconomic status
• Immigration background
• Religion/belief system
• Place of residence
• Family circumstances
• Extracurricular activities related to diversity

Include vulnerable, authentic stories about your lived experiences. Maintain focus on your experience rather than going into too much detail comparing yourself to others or describing their experiences.

Keep the focus on you

Tell a story about how your background, identity, or experience has impacted you. While you can briefly mention another person’s experience to provide context, be sure to keep the essay focused on you. Admissions officers are mostly interested in learning about your lived experience, not anyone else’s.

When I was a baby, my grandmother took me in, even though that meant postponing her retirement and continuing to work full-time at the local hairdresser. Even working every shift she could, she never missed a single school play or soccer game.

She and I had a really special bond, even creating our own special language to leave each other secret notes and messages. She always pushed me to succeed in school, and celebrated every academic achievement like it was worthy of a Nobel Prize. Every month, any leftover tip money she received at work went to a special 509 savings plan for my college education.

When I was in the 10th grade, my grandmother was diagnosed with ALS. We didn’t have health insurance, and what began with quitting soccer eventually led to dropping out of school as her condition worsened. In between her doctor’s appointments, keeping the house tidy, and keeping her comfortable, I took advantage of those few free moments to study for the GED.

In school pictures at Raleigh Elementary School, you could immediately spot me as “that Asian girl.” At lunch, I used to bring leftover fun see noodles, but after my classmates remarked how they smelled disgusting, I begged my mom to make a “regular” lunch of sliced bread, mayonnaise, and deli meat.

Although born and raised in North Carolina, I felt a cultural obligation to learn my “mother tongue” and reconnect with my “homeland.” After two years of all-day Saturday Chinese school, I finally visited Beijing for the first time, expecting I would finally belong. While my face initially assured locals of my Chinese identity, the moment I spoke, my cover was blown. My Chinese was littered with tonal errors, and I was instantly labeled as an “ABC,” American-born Chinese.

I felt culturally homeless.

Speak from your own experience

Highlight your actions, difficulties, and feelings rather than comparing yourself to others. While it may be tempting to write about how you have been more or less fortunate than those around you, keep the focus on you and your unique experiences, as shown below.

I began to despair when the FAFSA website once again filled with red error messages.

I had been at the local library for hours and hadn’t even been able to finish the form, much less the other to-do items for my application.

I am the first person in my family to even consider going to college. My parents work two jobs each, but even then, it’s sometimes very hard to make ends meet. Rather than playing soccer or competing in speech and debate, I help my family by taking care of my younger siblings after school and on the weekends.

“We only speak one language here. Speak proper English!” roared a store owner when I had attempted to buy bread and accidentally used the wrong preposition.

In middle school, I had relentlessly studied English grammar textbooks and received the highest marks.

Leaving Seoul was hard, but living in West Orange, New Jersey was much harder一especially navigating everyday communication with Americans.

After sharing relevant personal stories, make sure to provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your perspective, activities, and goals. You should also explain how your background led you to apply to this university and why you’re a good fit.

Include your outlook, actions, and goals

Conclude your essay with an insight about how your background or identity has affected your outlook, actions, and goals. You should include specific actions and activities that you have done as a result of your insight.

One night, before the midnight premiere of Avengers: Endgame , I stopped by my best friend Maria’s house. Her mother prepared tamales, churros, and Mexican hot chocolate, packing them all neatly in an Igloo lunch box. As we sat in the line snaking around the AMC theater, I thought back to when Maria and I took salsa classes together and when we belted out Selena’s “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” at karaoke. In that moment, as I munched on a chicken tamale, I realized how much I admired the beauty, complexity, and joy in Maria’s culture but had suppressed and devalued my own.

The following semester, I joined Model UN. Since then, I have learned how to proudly represent other countries and have gained cultural perspectives other than my own. I now understand that all cultures, including my own, are equal. I still struggle with small triggers, like when I go through airport security and feel a suspicious glance toward me, or when I feel self-conscious for bringing kabsa to school lunch. But in the future, I hope to study and work in international relations to continue learning about other cultures and impart a positive impression of Saudi culture to the world.

The smell of the early morning dew and the welcoming whinnies of my family’s horses are some of my most treasured childhood memories. To this day, our farm remains so rural that we do not have broadband access, and we’re too far away from the closest town for the postal service to reach us.

Going to school regularly was always a struggle: between the unceasing demands of the farm and our lack of connectivity, it was hard to keep up with my studies. Despite being a voracious reader, avid amateur chemist, and active participant in the classroom, emergencies and unforeseen events at the farm meant that I had a lot of unexcused absences.

Although it had challenges, my upbringing taught me resilience, the value of hard work, and the importance of family. Staying up all night to watch a foal being born, successfully saving the animals from a minor fire, and finding ways to soothe a nervous mare afraid of thunder have led to an unbreakable family bond.

Our farm is my family’s birthright and our livelihood, and I am eager to learn how to ensure the farm’s financial and technological success for future generations. In college, I am looking forward to joining a chapter of Future Farmers of America and studying agricultural business to carry my family’s legacy forward.

Tailor your answer to the university

After explaining how your identity or background will enrich the university’s existing student body, you can mention the university organizations, groups, or courses in which you’re interested.

Maybe a larger public school setting will allow you to broaden your community, or a small liberal arts college has a specialized program that will give you space to discover your voice and identity. Perhaps this particular university has an active affinity group you’d like to join.

Demonstrating how a university’s specific programs or clubs are relevant to you can show that you’ve done your research and would be a great addition to the university.

At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to study engineering not only to emulate my mother’s achievements and strength, but also to forge my own path as an engineer with disabilities. I appreciate the University of Michigan’s long-standing dedication to supporting students with disabilities in ways ranging from accessible housing to assistive technology. At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to receive a top-notch education and use it to inspire others to strive for their best, regardless of their circumstances.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

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Diversity in Healthcare

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Patient outcomes in healthcare is a topic that is coming to the forefront in a world that is increasingly becoming more diverse, as there is an increase in migration across the world, whether it be by choice or by necessity. This means that healthcare professionals throughout different healthcare domains must ...

Keywords : Diversity, graduate education, cultural/linguistic, healthcare

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Cultural Diversity Issues in Healthcare Essay

Chong family moved from China (Sichuan province) to the US (New York, NY) in 2017. The family consists of parents, two children aged nine and 15, and a grandmother. The reason for such relocation is career opportunities offered to the father. In particular, a large corporation is working for provided promotion in the US for the position of a chief manager that requires managing people and introducing Chinese technologies as a joint production of common products. The key problem is associated with the fact that none of these family members is familiar with the US context, traditions, values, and other issues that should be taken into account while living in another country. Also, they encounter difficulties and misunderstandings in receiving adequate health care services. At the same time, the Chong family prefers to preserve their Chinese culture.

To address the identified issue, it seems essential to apply social cognitive theory (SCT) theory elaborated by Bandura, who considered that human behavior might be explained in terms of environmental factors, personality traits, and the very process of behavior interaction (“Social and behavioral theories,” n.d.). Since the given family encounters cultural and adaptation difficulties, SCT seems to promote greater cooperation with a counselor as well as enhanced understanding. In particular, the environment in the above theory influences the personality to the same extent that a person affects the environment, creating mutual formation. Such continuous interaction leads to a certain balance between freedom and determinism in SCT (“Social and behavioral theories,” n.d.). Human behavior, according to the social cognitive theory, is, for the most part, absorbed by mastering patterns of behavior.

Among the suggested goals, it is possible to pinpoint achieving a greater understanding of the US context, existing treatment options, and potential challenges, identifying the required health services and discussing their application, as well as determining the anticipated treatment outcomes. As reckoned by Spector (2017), cultural diversity should be taken into account in a variety of forms, through which groups and societies find the expression that can be transmitted between them. Cultural targeting should be utilized in this case to align collectivism and individualism, thus making closer different values and symbols. The goals should be approved both by the family members and a counselor. Being based on SCT and cultural diversity assumptions, the identified goals seem to address this family’s problem.

Speaking of the intervention, shared decision making (SDM) may be applied to this family to increase their awareness of diversity and more concise perception of the local context (Alden, Friend, Schapira, & Stiggelbout, 2014). In other words, treatment planning should be based on SDM and will presumably involve the following aspects: initial group consultation with a care provider, individual meetings with every family member, and the final planning consultation to reveal and align key needs and expectations of the family. Alden et al. (2014) state that it is of great importance to understand the extent to which cultural values affect the family decisions and use them as a decision aid content. Along with cultural targeting, tailoring techniques may be beneficial for the given family to analyze cultural mindsets and develop long-term cooperation between caregivers and family members. In general, it seems essential to built proper relationships and communication between the mentioned parties since both the context and personal traits should be thoroughly collected and interpreted to achieve the stated goals.

Alden, D. L., Friend, J., Schapira, M., & Stiggelbout, A. (2014). Cultural targeting and tailoring of shared decision making technology: A theoretical framework for improving the effectiveness of patient decision aids in culturally diverse groups. Social Science & Medicine , 105 , 1-8.

Social and behavioral theories . (n.d.). Web.

Spector, R. E. (2017). Cultural diversity in health and illness (9th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.

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Harvard Is Bringing Back Standardized Tests. Other Schools Should, Too.

Emi nietfeld didn’t have access to lacrosse or advanced placement classes, but she did have standardized tests..

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Harvard University is among the latest institutions to announce it is reversing its test-optional policy and requiring students to submit test scores in their applications. For the writer Emi Nietfeld, it’s a positive sign. Growing up homeless and in the foster care system, she didn’t have a lot of control over her education or resources that would bolster her college applications. But one thing she did have control over was studying for standardized tests. In this audio essay, Nietfeld explains how Scantron sheets helped her unlock a better life.

(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available on Monday in the audio player above.)

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