FORT WAYNE – A lack of diversity is a problem in the nursing field, nursing program directors at two local universities say.
Minority representation in the health professions has grown slowly since 1980. Among registered nurses, for example, the percentage of blacks and Hispanics falls far short of their percentage of the population, according to the 2008 National Sample of Registered Nurses.
Blacks represent 5 percent of registered nurses and 12 percent of the population. Hispanics represent about 4 percent of registered nurses and 15 percent of the population.
Asian-Americans fall short, too, with 3 percent of registered nurses and nearly 6 percent of the population. The 83 percent of nurses who are white far exceeds their population representation – 66 percent.
Nursing program directors at the University of Saint Francis and IPFW say they are doing all they can to draw more minorities into their programs.
The percentage of minorities enrolling in Saint Francis’ nursing programs is on the rise, according to Nancy Gillespie, dean of the school of health sciences. But despite the increases, Gillespie said the programs have a way to go before they meet their diversity goals.
More than 8 percent of the nearly 640 students enrolled in the graduate and undergraduate nursing programs are self-identified as minorities, Gillespie said.
To attract more minority students, the program is applying for federal grants, advertising in minority publications, working with a health care scholarship program for blacks and trying a host of other measures to reach out to the community, according to Gillespie.
“Diversity adds so much breadth and depth to learning,” she said. “When (students) go out there they will be working with many different populations. It’s hard to do that when you have few role models.”
Carol Sternberger, chairwoman of IPFW’s nursing department, said she’s also hoping to recruit more minorities. Last fall, about 7 percent – 13 of the program’s 182 nursing majors – identified themselves as minorities, according to IPFW’s Institutional Research & Analysis division.
Sternberger said the program at IPFW is also trying to recruit more minorities, largely through work with a local society of minority nurses and the Northeast Indiana Area Health and Education Center.
The program has applied for a federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant to help recruit minorities in the past, she said, but the request was denied on the grounds that the program wouldn’t be able to recruit enough minorities.
“One of the barriers we’ve found is because there are so many opportunities, many of the top minority students are choosing to go into other professions such as law, engineering or business because they’re higher paid,” she said. “The students we try to recruit are really choosing other professions.”
Betty Smith Williams, president emeritus of the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, was the first black nurse to teach at a major California university. She became an assistant dean of nursing at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“There are too few white nurses who understand these cultures,” she said. “Traditional universities don’t have the role models and the sensitivities to recruit and train minority students. They always come to us, and we have to help fill the void.
“We recruit through networking, camaraderie and relationships developed at our conventions.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
