Diversity and Discrimination In Healthcare

Diversity is broadly defined as the inclusion of varied attributes or characteristics. In the medical community, diversity often refers to the inclusion of healthcare professionals, trainees, educators, researchers, and patients of varied race, ethnicity, gender, disability, social class, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, primary spoken language, and geographic region.Discrimination in the healthcare setting can be defined as negative actions or lack of consideration given to an individual or group that occurs because of a preconceived and unjustified opinion. It is worth noting that individuals do not need to be members of an unfairly treated group to experience discrimination against that group. Discrimination can occur based upon perceived membership. Furthermore, harm does not need to occur for discrimination to exist. A group may be discriminated against if they receive something of less value than another group solely because of their race, ethnicity, gender, disability, social class, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, primary spoken language, or location of residence.While people can be discriminated against for various reasons, this article focuses mainly on gender, ethnicity, and race-based discrimination in the healthcare setting, not because these are the most important, but because these areas are best represented in the literature. We hope that the next version of this article will include more information on discrimination involving other underrepresented and marginalized groups.