Minority representation in healthcare: increasing the number of professionals through focused recruitment.

Healthcare organizations suffer from a disparate distribution of racial and ethnic minority employees in professional positions. Although the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities in the workforce continues to grow, the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities who compose the professional ranks, nursing and managerial positions, lags far behind the percentage of White individuals in similar positions. This gap has implications for organizational performance as research indicates organizations with more diverse workforces enjoy better outcomes. A more diverse workforce also has broader societal consequences directly tied to healthcare such as positively impacting health disparities. The authors posit that recruitment is critical to developing a diverse workforce.