Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing viewpoints with a rationale, challenging aspects of the discussion, or indicating relationships be

progress.

Topic 1

Staff Education

• a. Create a lesson about cultural diversity in the workforce.
• b. Explain how you would motivate your audience.
• c. Discuss potential barriers to learning.

Reply to my peers

Peer 1

Cultural diversity in the workforce involves multilingual colleagues, gender, religion, age, ethnicity, etc. but the lesson plan that I would like to write about is involving colleagues that are multilingual. In today’s society and in our country; speaking more than one language is a great privilege, benefit, and provides many opportunities. It is estimated that over 50 million people speak Spanish either as their primary language or secondary here in the United States of America. As a changing demographic and workforce; it’s of importance to be culturally aware and culturally competent as nurses in our skills, abilities, and experiences. To start our lesson, I’d like to gather employees together and encourage to speak about is common and unique in their culture and welcome different ideas and viewpoints. Next, id like everyone to share a story of either of a time of how they felt respected (of their culture) or the opposite; a time they can share with us of a misjudgment, disrespectful, or treated inferiorly. After these questions and stories are shared; I would like to encourage them to use this a learning experience of each other and how to be mindful and apply this out in the real world. Whether one needs to dissect and identify and prejudice or concerns them have about themselves or how we can all improve and be better individuals by being more aware and cognizant of our surrounding, diversity, and be culturally competent nurses. Common potentials of barriers to learning are getting out of your comfort zone and possibly a negative past experience (that can be hard to overcome). ‘Feedback must be specific, not general. [Adults] must also see a reward for learning … [They] must be interested in the subject [matter]. Interest is directly related to reward. Adults must see the benefit of learning in order to motivate themselves to learn’ (Galbraith 1990: 25). (Falasca, 2011). To overcome barriers; the one leading the group must first assess and communicate effectively what these potential barriers are for each individual. Expecting these potential barriers is important step to move through them and be successful in the goal of the diversity topic of discussion and learning. To assess be see if learning took place and how well this group learning discussion was and how effective it was is to evaluate and have return feedback; either verbally or written down privately. Also, if in the end, each colleague can state what them remembered most during the lesson or what stood out to them; hearing a restatement of either two questions above can be great way to see if they were actively listening and what they retained from this lesson.

References:

Neal-Boylan, L. (2015). Overcoming Barriers. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 31(4), 246–247. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnd.0000000000000186

Falasca, M. (2011). Barriers to adult learning: Bridging the gap. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 51(3). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ954482.pdf

Peer 2

Cultural Diversity in the Workforce

Understanding the role of cultural diversity in the workplace is of the utmost importance, especially in our current socio-political climate. We must use this time of heightened awareness to continue to break down stereotypes and work toward the eventual goal of people being looked at only as people, not a race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other personal quality that has been historically used to categorize a group of people. Reaching out for those considered to be in disenfranchised groups is today and always has been an essential part of psychological, social and economic survival (Blocher, Heppner, Johnson, 2008).

To begin the lesson, I would engage my audience with a series of questions. Each participant will receive a piece of paper and a pencil to write down answers to questions for self-reflection purposes. I would ask questions such as “Do you believe that you fall prey to stereotypes?” “Can you think of a stereotype, positive or negative, that applies to any of the groups you feel you belong in?” After that, I would discuss issues that could possibly block the participants’ full understanding of the material about to be presented. Issues such as during the self-reflection phase a participant that thinks of themselves as a person that promotes cultural diversity having unconscious biases that might have been modeled for them by their parents or grandparents, or a participant who believes that positive stereotypes are not really stereotypes because they are not negative. Next, I would explain the difference between equality, equity and fairness, and ensure the learners understand the material by asking questions such as “Can you explain these three concepts back to the person sitting next to you?” In addition, I would ask if there was a situation in their workplace where a co-worker said or did something that was detrimental to diversity initiatives, do they know the proper person in their organization to report that behavior to? After this I would go through a series of non-diversity compliant scenarios that the participants could act out in small groups. After the allotted time had passed, I would gather all the participants back in to the large group setting and give instruction that would be specific to their organization, such as compliance officers, what to do if it was your superior that was the offender, how to proceed up the chain of command if you feel issues are not being taken seriously etc. At the end of instruction, I would give the participants an instrument for them to rate the content of the course, if there was anything that they felt should be addressed that wasn’t or should have been spoken about more in depth. In addition, I would include questions about who their compliance officers are. After the session I would have handouts with important parts of the lesson available for the participants to take with them if they wish.

Blocher, D. H., Heppner, M., & Johnston, J. (2008). Understanding Cultural Diversity: Implications for the Workforce.Counseling & Human Development,41(2), 1.