Think of the countless individuals seeking care daily in our clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, schools, and all manner of health care setting. To best communicate, understand, and build trust, it’s vital that patients see people in the healthcare workforce who look, speak, eat, pray, and live like they do.

Our healthcare workforce is far from diverse, representative of our population, or a reflection of our communities and the people we care for. And that is problematic. This representation pipeline problem takes root early on in our educational settings.

In this episode, we meet nurse anesthetist, founder and CEO of Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program, Wallena Gould, EdD, CRNA, FAAN, whose personal experiences led to a recognition of the scope and root problems that prevent innovation from being impactful or scaled, which led to a body of work that has been applied across healthcare to forge a more equitable future.

Have questions for the SEE YOU NOW team? Feedback? Future episode ideas? Contact us at hello@seeyounowpodcast.com.

Episode Resources:

• Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program
• Dr. Wallena Gould’s Keynote Speech at the 2016 Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden Commencement
• Diversity in Healthcare: The Importance of Representation
• The New Yorker, “Slow Ideas” by Atul Gawande
• “Diffusions of Innovation” by Everett Rogers
• CRNA Goldie Brangman on Treating Dr. Martin Luther King