The Time to Embrace Diversity in Healthcare is Now

Posted Feb 03, 2025

By Giselle Fead ’25

Over time, the shortage of diversity in healthcare has become more evident, prompting a widespread acknowledgment of its significant consequences. This can make patients from various backgrounds feel awkward and unsettled when seeking assistance. At clinics or hospitals, they may encounter a lack of understanding from staff, which contributes to feelings of discomfort in what should have been supportive environments. Consequently, this disconnect creates trust issues, causing many individuals to avoid seeking medical care altogether or to postpone treatment until their conditions worsened.

Senior Jennatta Mensah, president of the Black Student Union, has seen firsthand the lack of diversity throughout the healthcare system from a very young age. “My father came to America in his 20s with just two suitcases from Accra, Ghana, ready to start his life in Columbus, Ohio. His first language is Twi, and second language is English,” she said. “In different situations, my father is spoken to like a child just because they hear his heavy accent.”

She said the situation had an impact when he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. “It got to a point where my mother or I had to attend his doctor’s appointments with him. The doctor didn’t care to explain to him about his diagnosis, but instead just gave an instruction on how to check his blood pressure and a paper on how to eat correctly. I felt like my father was totally disregarded, so I had to advocate for him to get the diagnosis explained because my father isn’t a child.”

Experiences like these inspired Mensah to pursue a double major in Health Communication and Public Health Education. “I could only imagine my father going through that appointment alone; he would have left the appointment beaten down and not know the severity of high blood pressure. This is one of the reasons why I want to enter the health field, though I am one woman, but I am a woman for change.”

Mensah’s experience shows a big problem in healthcare: many providers don’t understand or respect diverse backgrounds. Unfortunately, the way her father was treated is not an isolated incident.

When patients feel ignored or misunderstood, they don’t trust doctors, follow treatment plans, or go to the doctor when they need to. This can make health problems worse and create big differences in health between different groups of people.

To combat this, healthcare organizations must hire a more diverse staff.

“I believe coming more inclusive in the healthcare industry, people will definitely feel more comfortable. When growing up everyone has a role model that looks just like them, whether its skin color, hair type, or style. When seeing someone you relate to, acting as someone who cares for you and wants to give you the best care will improve the outcome of many situations. Having representation gives you the motivation to get up and go to the doctor without fear of being neglected and discriminated against,” said Mensah.

Being the BSU president, Mensah has encountered basic interactions in her daily life that call for a change, “At a PWI (Predominantly White Institution), most times we feel underrepresented by staff and faculty; I could name about 20 people of color who’ve I interacted with off the top of my head versus the hundreds of people who work at Otterbein. Now that the Black student population is growing tremendously, many new students are looking for adult mentors who look like them to navigate the struggles of a college student – who may even be a first-generation like me, who had no guidance and a bunch of YouTube videos.”

The increasing diversity within college student populations brings with it a promise of a more inclusive future for the healthcare industry. As students from various cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds pursue careers in healthcare, they bring unique perspectives, experiences, and insights that enrich the field.

This growing diversity not only reflects the changing demographics of society but also holds the potential to address differences in healthcare access and outcomes. By fostering an environment where everyone is treated with respect and understanding, regardless of their background, the healthcare industry can strive towards providing quality care that is adaptive to the diverse needs of patients.