hi welcome to you didn't get the memo show an extremely excited to bring to you today a show with our guest kim j scott who's ridged her nurse and is a diversity motivational speaker here on the show you didn't get the memo we actually strive to bring relevant factual informational content to you our viewers hoping that you will be better informed and make better decisions i'm excited to have with us kim kim thank you so much for joining me today thank you for having me gloria it's my pleasure good one of the things i want to kind of jump by the end and talk about is the fact that you are the immediate you are a past president of the bay area black nurses association and to give us a little background to get us moving into having dialogue around diversity in nursing why don't you tell us a little bit about what the barrier black nurses is and what they do share the very black nurses association is a professional five  c three organization a professional aryans l v end and nursing students we've been in the community or be in the bay area for forty five years we are a local chapter of the national black nurses association and our mission is basically to increase the amount of african american nurses and and other ethnic nurses and the workforce as well as increasing african american male nurse leaders so we do screenings and provide care in the community we partner with other organizations we really try to promote mentoring those and actually expressing what nursing is beyond the bedside right right and in fact one of the things  stroud was one of the co founders of the very black nurses association and we've done it's called our florence stroud black history month conference series and so this our two thousand and fifteen will be focusing on patient care so it's addressing present and future nursing needs increasing diversity in order to improve patient outcomes so i'm really excited we have confirmed dr beverly malone who is the c e o and president of the national league for nursing and we will have a patient panel talking about diversity how it affects patient are improving patient care providing quality care also supporting students that are in school now how to successfully complete nursing school which is has been a barrier and a tossed around the law is the word diversity yes and i want you to talk about what you me while you speak of diversity as it relates to quality care in nursing because there is a difference yes so diversity is unique individual difference and so we look at diversity and i think it has been kind of negative in how we look at that but really looking at diversity as a positive thing and embracing diversity so we all have unique characteristics and something to bring to the table so what you'll start to hear more now when i talk when they talk about diversity and inclusion is including not excluding anyone that we all have something to i add something to make the experience more colorful and more interesting i love the fact that i i work with i has panic nervous as well as with an indian ours and our office is just it's so great i've learned so many things from them diversity is just something that's beautiful where we can sh really improve each other ok that are totally agree with you on so from the nursing perspective you talked a little bit about increasing nurses that are of diverse backgrounds talk a little bit to me about that because from my understanding in my research it appears that the number of especially african american nurses it is really way down and so why do you think that is and what can be done to actually increase earned prove those numbers ok so when you look at we're looking at the nursing workforce we're going to look at our population as a whole so i can going to be specific to california the population of african americans about six percent  nursing the representation in nursing is about three almost four percent so you want their nursing workforce and the workforce to reflect the population that served so we have some gaps there even looking at the latino and hispanic community which is more despaired in regards to population verses representation in nursing so for hispanic and latino nurses the population is almost forty percent but there's less than ten percent of our hands representing so of course you want whoever you serve to reflect you know the people that are serving them so that we can provide quality care when you come and when you go somewhere and you you get care our service and you don't see anyone that looks like you there's a certain kind of feeling that goes on air you may feel like i can identify where are i don't feel comfortable when i think about you the workforce are also think about a personal experience i have where i was i grew up in the bay area however i finished high school in corvallis oregon so corvallis oregon is not very diverse the best decision i ever made but i reflect back to the first day i walked into crescent valley high school and there was no one that really looked like me so there was a feeling of on being uncomfortable feeling like i w lated and it wasn't a positive feeling but over time it was great i felt included i felt like this is this is an opportunity for me but when i first got into the school i didn't feel that comfortable i didn't feel as welcome because i didn't see anyone who i could particularly relate to and i think that's the same and health care we take care of people at their most vulnerable time historically for african american males there is to see so there's a mistrust of health care so when you engage in health care and you have some historical experiences are have heard about something you come with certain feelings right right expectations are lack of and so when you see someone that identify you that i think anyone could could think about you've gone somewhere you seen people that look like you're like ok i'm ok and then you don't see one someone else it's like you might be ok let me i'm a little more skeptical or maybe i'm to explore this see how this feels absolutely and so i have had that personal experience of taking care of individuals that are part of my heritage that they felt at ease when i walked in i was able to translate to them they may have not been compliant i wanted to be compliant and i went and i can relate to them we had a conversation so they were at ease and they were easily able to comply with the care you're good and that leads into one of the things i know that you actually have a personal experience as a nurse because one of the things i want the audience to know is that you are registered nurse and i would love for you to just share that because that speaks to why it's so important that organizations really look at why we need to have a diverse workforce and why we need to have people that look like us and interface with us and to understand the diversity using just a word or is just the color of  but it's other things and so can you talk a little bit about this personal experience you had work it is a nurse absolutely so about sixteen years ago when i started my nursing career i worked in the emergency department and it was a particular gentleman who came and he was about late seventy's all of the early eighty's as gentlemen came in he had had some dizziness and feeling lightheaded so i went to introduce myself and establish some report before the physician went in to examine him and so i'm like how are you doing and i i kind of smelt a year and so i was kind of curious about what's his home life like what kind of support does he have at home so i said who do you live with mr jackson and he said my wife and kids and i said ok so i think it your grandkids no my kids i said ok how old are your kids like six and eight and he said it with this little smirk like yeah i guess i still have it i was like ok so i said how old is your wife he said forty forty six i said oh really he gave the physician an opportunity to go and examine him she went back to the office after she was done and was started to dictate and write orders so i went in i was like hey doc what do you think and then the physician was a young probably in her thirty's white woman and she said you know he's really interesting we're going to draw some labs and give him some i v fluids but you know the most interesting thing was he said his wife had mochi and she had actually dictated that message well you know it was multiple sclerosis she said a really i would have thought that and at that moment i was i you know i was really a translator for this gentleman although it may have not made a difference in what she was ordering for him but if we look at the bigger picture and i do provide right we provide physical social care the whole person so as i look at that and we plan the care of individuals who come in seek care what does that mean where it can mean a lot so that may have been small but it could be a bigger piece of when he leaves the emergency department or if he gets admitted in his discharged home what kind of support right you have what do we need to provide for his wife so that she can be able to help to care for him because he was caring for her so it has maybe something small but it's huge and so it's really you talk about language you have you know we may speak you may speak spanish and i may speak english so that's very apparent right i can't we can't communicate that way but there's other types of language are being able to relate to someone a little knowledge of cultural values and behaviors that go on to us providing quality care for patients and it's almost as if you're  someone a doctor may come in and say you're suffering with hypertension and they don't relate to hypertension but they they relate to you know my blood pressure when i my precious my friend that's really really important so that leads me  speaking of the dialogue a little bit about taking care of patients who are of a different ethnicity do you feel that a caucasian nurse will be able to render the type of care or the same kind of care that to an african american patient or hispanic patient that someone of their own ethnic origin would be able to ok so gloria when you say the same care  i think that someone of a different ethnic background are different background can absolutely provide excellent care because they don't share the same heritage absolutely that's culturally competent care right and even you may have someone of the same background that may not be able to relate that have different social economic backgrounds or i cannot relate to speaking that way but you know so you have different is however as i said earlier if i see someone who can relate to me our looks like me or any more than likely share more in common for the most part so you're going to understand what i may be dealing with even from how we were raised our families and just traditionally sharing the same heritage what that brings along so being able to relate to me is going to help us have a stronger relationship research says that having to help to have it have any providers or healthcare that reflect the community that they serve it creates stronger relationships and it creates and provides quality care because there's better understanding people are able to communicate and understand one another i'm able to understand or even listen our know how to listen for what you need rather what is quality to you even asking that taking the time being aware having that awareness of this may not work and i say that for all cultures in nursing school we always learn that right now there is a piece on culture company care so if i take care of someone who's asian i do know that cold water isn't always the best thing so just knowing little things can make a huge difference in someone's individual care needs and if we don't know just being aware ever abiders to ask right right and also with that i think that in terms of that patient and the outcome in terms of wellness for them that it will also make a difference if they're able to relate a little bit more but i agree with you that you know competent care is competent care in the way that you look at it but i think there you can have a really good robust explanation of whom we're talking about that so thank you for that but let's move on and talk about health disparities yes that's a really really big being in our country and i'd like to know what your definition is when i talk about or say the word to you health disparities and why do you think it is important that leaders of medical organizations they really need to recognize that there are health disparities and water are they going to do about it this is a call to action at this point absolutely so health disparity when you say the word despair i mean it's not a positive thing right health disparity is a difference a lack if it's an equal and not in a positive way so there's a difference african americans are more likely to die from cancer cardiac cardiovascular disease diabetes asthma hiv aids and even homicide we see what's going on in the media right now doesn't really seem like african american males are valued so much but we look at that and they're more likely to die than anybody else the numbers aren't equal and why is that so we have to understand what do we need to do to close the gap to really balance that so that it's not a discrepancy that it's more balanced and it's equal and it's just an affair right so everyone should have the right to equal care to be treated as a whole person to be valued and to get excellent care care so why is one group over the other and disparity has been rooted in discrimination and just as in the differences in social economic status and access to care so we want to close that gap and for health care leaders if you're leading something you have to be aware of what's currently going on you need to know the makeup of the community that you serve and try to understand  close all gaps all gaps that everyone has a right like i said before to equal care so i understand why is it different is it that my the employees or the staff at my hospital really doesn't reflect the community that we're serving in are we able to provide resources and have individuals that speak the language of the community there are tools and resources that are available to health care workers now that will translate because if i can't speak your language i cannot help you i cannot provide you quality care i cannot speak your language so we need to access those tools or have individuals that even better that speak these languages so looking at the make up the workforce or your staff as a leader and look at that and compare it to the the community that you're serving you may not necessarily be able to do anything about it right off but taken into consideration in just be aware of it because there are some differences that can be made there are there is something that can be done right and those are the small steps but yet very important steps that i think organizations can actually take now the other thing when we talk about health care disparities you know it affects us as taxpayers so when we talk about disparities can you give us a little bit in terms of how that actually translate into dollars absolutely there is a one point two trillion dollar cost as it results to health care and neck what if we were to spend money to reduce those inequities we could save two  hundred twenty nine billion dollars what are trillions of dollars that our money is going towards inequality so it is in our best interest to really close those gaps and try to and identify how can we make care more equitable because there is a monetary cost savings to all of us as taxpayers right right so with that being said then where do you think that california because we're actually  model for everything this seems like you know other states follow what do you think may be can be done to close this divide so for one the reason why you have me year is really talking about increasing diversity and we talked about the health care disparities so looking at how can we close those gaps that the population is going to be more diverse by twenty twenty and when i say twenty twenty that seems so far off a lot better three hours from now right you know there are these twenty twenty plans to improve now that's five years from now what do we do so we need to look at how we recruit educate and retain nurses nurses students and there is not a lot of capacity in the schools among faculty nursing faculties and schools to where there's a lot of students that want to come into nursing but because there's only so many slots because there's only so many faculty to teach them right that i recently met with a school a university that has a nursing program and said we have five hundred applicants people who want to go into nursing but we only have one hundred twenty six slots and one young lady was at that meeting who was a african american nursing student said you know when i came in i didn't even know that i just thought i was in as a pretty nursing student and had spent two years at that university and finally got into the program but started to think about well what was going to happen to those other three hundred  info you know and it was said maybe to think about another career so i mean that was valid that was really hard to hear that but there are other options there are other schools but what's happening for california because we have this crunch is some people are having to go out of state or consider going our way to get there in their nursing career and also another piece about that gloria is that there's an interesting phenomenon that's going on in nursing and has been for the last few years as a result of the recession is that there's a lot of nurses that have graduated but there are no jobs there are no jobs that has as far as because the recession's hospital didn't have the funds to train the new grad nurses so you have nurses you have money leaving the state you have people saying i'm going to try to wait this out and get a job but there aren't any training programs so what am i going to do now i have these student loans now i have all i've had my education i want to work and there aren't any jobs for in experiences nursing nurses right now so on the up side i think that's going to start to change as a result of affordable care act and some creation of new opportunities but that's what it is right now so what do we do there is not enough capacity in nursing schools right we have people leaving we have people who are trained and ready to work but can't so we have to there's a lot of work to be and also to go back to that question is where the well is what can we do is we need to focus on those coming up so those who are in our cave through twelve education we know my educational system is lacking right right to put money there we need to improve that because that's where it starts we're not having enough under represented nurses because they're not as per pair you know they may attend schools that aren't giving them what they money for the math and the science that sciences that are required to get into nursing schools and as i said i met with one of the you know local university this said you know it's so competitive now because you have only those hundred in a lot of that now a b is not great it's an egg you have to get it if you're already struggling in high school you want to be a nurse you get to college you can't pass these tests you can't you don't meet the scores we have to start focusing on early education and so by that what i mean is focusing outreaching so the very black nurses other organizations the universities outreach into our elementary junior high and sometimes in high school it seems a little might be too late but we need to really focus on early education because some of these nursing students are people are going to college are first generation college students so in their homes they don't know what it is like to study most of their parents have been working so they're not spend a lot of time with them working on their homework right for instance i can relate to that i have a interesting interesting upbringing aware my mom and dad were married until i was ten but when they divorced i went to live with my mom my mom worked at nation's hamburgers for many years my mom of that home and actually wasn't even able are quick to really help me with homework and then i went to live with my dad in high school where i had everything i needed and so i feel where it is to really struggle with the single parent and have to just fin for yourself and get what you get at school and do the best that i can to really having the support that i need because there was a social economic difference so you see we don't ask for this it just happens right so how do we subsidize what someone experiences at home if it's not enough to help you to be successful  mentoring it's going into under represented areas and being mentors even at the colleges now there's not enough counselors right so people are there but they still have questions and so the need is so great yeah so we have to grass roots the organizations that are in the community reach out to our under represented areas areas where the social economic difference is and really start to boost that and start to promote what is the image of nursing and that's another piece i think that people aren't aware of all of the different opportunities within nursing other than being in the bedside so here's my question to you first of all i mean i think there's great dialogue and there are probably viewers out there who want to know how they can contact you for more information or to contact the bay area black nurses so is there a contact email or a number that they can have absolutely so the very black nurses we have a website and b as in boy a's apple b as in boy male president will be starting in january so males are are a minority within nursing so really excited about that we'll have a new male nurse president and vice presidents are our new president is gregory woods and for myself you can reach me at k j scott that's s c o t t seventy three g mail dot com i will care i will kill i want to thank you so much for joining me today and for us to be able to have this dialogue around diversity in nursing because i think it's a wonderful profession and it certainly is something that people who are interested in moving into the medical field will be able to glean more information from and certainly hope that they'll reach out to bury a black nurses and to seek those resources what i would like to say to our viewing audience today if you don't take away at least one thing from this discussion then you really  memo thank you so much for joining us and kim thank you very much for being here today i really appreciate it thank you gloria it's been my pleasure absolutely