Diversity

At the Educational Summit I am attending for Nurse Educators, they picked a theme called diversity in heritage and thought. It sounds like a thought provoking topic in caring for others; however, my group feels they totally missed the mark. The committee who developed the theme through keynote speakers & classes decided to only focus on diversity in race, gender and age. Narrowing this field, it seemed to scream individual agenda. Instead of uplifted and energized, we left with a bad taste from each keynote. The individual classes were on other topics and were much better.

My thoughts, and my group's thoughts, were these: Aren't we all diverse? Although some of us have the same skin color, the tone's are a bit different. Our life experiences that led us to this point are different. Our educational choices are different. Our specialties are different. Our religions are different. Our political views are different. We are all diverse, but collectively we can do extraordinary things. Why do we limit ourselves in prejudice and cloak it under topics like diversity. My current vocation is educating the next generation of nurses, who are also very diverse in what they bring to the mix. Instead of focusing on prejudice, we should focus on the goal of making our world (our healthcare system) the best it can possibly be with caring individuals leading the way. Lofty? Possibly. However, instead of roadblocks, I see opportunity.