Months of nationwide protests catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd, alongside COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on the Black community, sparked a nationwide reckoning: social inequities continue to define the Black experience in the US.
Systemic racism most severely affects our public health ecosystem, with a devastating impact on the health and livelihoods of Black Americans.
In our day-to-day work with healthcare professionals, we’ve seen that our system has long struggled to support the health of vulnerable populations, whether in quality of care, access to basic health services, or protections. In patient care, Black individuals are less likely to get the same treatment with pain medication, 50 percent less likely to receive counseling or mental health treatment, and are more likely to receive less desirable treatments for major diseases, such as stroke or cancer.
From where we sit, tackling inequalities in patient care starts with rethinking how we staff the health providers at the frontlines of all care centers.
Everyone in the healthcare community has a shared responsibility to empower Black medical professionals, while providing equal access to job opportunities. As a healthcare staffing marketplace, we have a responsibility to build up a frontline of healthcare workers that reflects the racial and socioeconomic diversity of its patients.
At Vivian Health, we’ve taken the opportunity to listen, engage, and chart a course of action to bring more diversity to the healthcare workforce around the country and support higher quality of care.
We are working with the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and have started discussing ways to empower and grow the Black nurse community as part of this charge.
This includes conversations on how we build and strengthen recruitment pipelines, including investment in NBNA scholarships, active participation in NBNA community and mentorship programs and the development of training materials to support the education of nurses and future nurses who reflect the racial and socioeconomic diversity of patients.
“We are grounded in our mission to bring equal access to healthcare through promoting Black Americans in the profession of nursing,” said Dr. Martha A. Dawson, President, National Black Nurses Association. “We need to increase the number of Black nurses to diversify the workforce and we need to increase the number of APRNs to increase the pool of primary health care providers. This will help to bring equal access to healthcare. NBNA advocates for collaboration with the communities we serve, as well as believe that nurses should reflect the nation’s diversity. We are grateful for the support that we’ve seen from several organizations, including Vivian Health, in our commitment to health care services for Black people and people of color. Together, we can work towards an equitable future.”
As we chart forward together as an industry, the National Black Nurses Association and Vivian Health have outlined the areas in which the healthcare ecosystem needs to invest to see systemic improvements:
We’re committed to playing our part to close the gap in hiring disparities across this professional community, for nurses and doctors alike, to ultimately overcome existing biases and racial disparities in healthcare.
Let’s keep an open dialogue on how we can work together to build the strongest frontline of diverse medical professionals. Get in touch with any ideas and suggestions in comments below.