Increasing gender and ethnic diversity in the health care workforce: The case of Arab male nurses in Israel.

Background: Despite recent attempts at increasing health care workforce diversity, a measure that was found to reduce health disparities, men remain a minority in the traditionally female occupation of nursing. One exception to this observation is the Arab ethnic minority in Israel that includes numerous male nurses.

Objective: Determining the percentage of Arab male nurses in the Israeli health care system and understanding how they perceive and negotiate their masculinity.

Intersectionality and underrepresentation among health care workforce: the case of Arab physicians in Israel.

Background: An intersectionality approach that addresses the non-additive influences of social categories and power structures, such as gender and ethnicity, is used as a research paradigm to further understanding the complexity of health inequities. While most researchers adopt an intersectionality approach to study patients' health status, in this article we exemplify its usefulness and importance for studying underrepresentation in the health care workforce. Our research objectives were to examine gender patterns of underrepresentation in the medical profession among the Arab minority in Israel.

Workforce ethnic diversity and culturally competent health care: the case of Arab physicians in Israel.

Objectives: In recent years, a growing body of literature has been calling for ethnic diversity in health systems, especially in multicultural contexts. Ethnic diversity within the health care workforce is considered to play an important role in reducing health disparities among different ethnic groups.

Methods: The present study explores the topic using quantitative data on participation of Arab employees in the Israeli health system and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with Arab physicians working in the predominantly Jewish Israeli health system.

Coping with illness and threat: why non-religious Jews choose to consult rabbis on healthcare issues.

Whereas modern and advanced medical services are available and accessible to all citizens of Israel, the phenomenon of consulting Orthodox rabbis (Jewish clerics) on healthcare issues is gaining ground among populations that do not identify themselves as religious. The objective of the research was to enquire why non-religious Jews choose to consult rabbis on medical issues. Fifty semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted during 2009-2011 in northern Israel.