Abstract | Creating More Diverse C-Suites

From Intention to Outcomes

Over the past year, nurse executives have been called upon to respond to dramatic clinical, economic and professional disruption, including resource and workforce shortages because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The greater incidence and less favorable clinical outcomes of the pandemic on minority populations, coupled with concurrent racial unrest, have coalesced to underscore major fault lines within our health care system. These recent events have highlighted the disparities in clinical outcomes for diverse populations as well as the value of diverse executive leaders in health care.

Diverse leaders bring a unique understanding of cultural differences that impact health, values and beliefs in addition to the experience of race in America. The addition of a diverse perspective to leadership teams can help organizations improve racial health disparities and employee and patient experience. In order to create organizations that effectively address the first issue—disparity of clinical outcomes—successful organizations must create diverse executive and senior leadership teams reflecting the populations served and the cultural dynamics of the current and emerging workforce.

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