Healthcare, race and diversity: time to act.

Nearly 40 years after the enactment of civil rights legislation in the United States and following a generation of multicultural policy in Canada, the vast majority of nurses in both countries are still female and white. But while nursing remains starkly segregated by gender, it is hardly alone among the health professions in its under-representation of visible minorities. Physicians and other caregivers find themselves in similar positions--they do not always reflect the communities and patients they serve.