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By
Mary Ann Hellinghausen Minorities make up about 25 percent of the U.S. population, but only about 10 percent work as healthcare professionals. Many believe that disparity is hurting access to health care for minorities, and that the gap is bound to widen as the nation becomes more ethnically diverse in the next decade. Healthy People 2010 will attempt to close that gap by attracting more minorities to the health professions, and as a result, provide minorities with better access to health care. "If we can recruit from areas that are underserved, hopefully those [health professionals] will return and provide services to that population," said Mario Manecci, MPH, acting director of the Division of Health Professions Diversity of the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Despite efforts to increase the number of racial and ethnic groups in health profession schools, the numbers have not increased significantly. The Healthy People 2010 goal of including more minorities in healthcare positions is similar to that of Healthy People 2000 which, so far, has met only 44 percent of its objectives. "It’s not that the goals for including more minorities in health care were not met in Healthy People 2000," said Melissa Clarke, MPA, Healthy People coordinator for HRSA. "It’s just that these goals have to be continuing goals." Part of the purpose of Healthy People 2010 is to increase the proportion of degrees awarded to underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The goal is to award 13 percent of nursing and other health degrees to African Americans and 12 percent to Hispanics by 2010. Fewer than 7 percent of nursing degrees awarded in 1995-96 went to African Americans or Hispanics, and fewer than 4 percent of allied health degrees went to members of those same groups in 1995-96, according to the latest data available from HRSA. "We still have a large percentage of people who are poor and have not gotten a good education," said Hilda Richards, EdD, RN, FAAN, president of the National Black Nurses Association, which offers tutoring and mentoring to African-American nursing students and nurses. "Too often, too many of us have to go through basic skills education because we did not get a good foundation." Nationwide efforts In Texas, where minorities make up less than 10 percent of nurses, more attention will be focused on minority recruitment for nursing and faculty positions in the next 18 months as the statewide nursing shortage heats up, said Clair Jordan, MSN, RN, executive director of the Texas Nurses Association. "There’s a huge need here [for minority nurses] because of Texas’ high Hispanic population," she said. Securing funds to support recruitment of minority students and faculty was a major focus of an education policy summit last year that brought Texas’ nursing schools together, Jordan said. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board also is planning to provide financial incentives to foster minority enrollment, begin recruitment efforts at elementary grade levels, and establish training programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, she said. |
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To achieve those objectives, HRSA’s Division of Nursing distributes about $3.8 million in grants each year to programs aimed at increasing minority enrollment and retaining those students in nursing programs. New this year are efforts to plant the seed of nursing interest in students as young as kindergartners. "We realize we have to go further down the pipeline so we’re not always playing catch up," said Elaine Cohen, MS, RN, chief of the Nursing Special Initiatives and Program Systems Branch of the Bureau of Health Professions. The National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) also is working to promote nursing among young minorities by sending nursing students to elementary, junior, and senior high schools. "Our targets now are the teen-agers because the average age of RNs is increasing so rapidly," said Diane Mancino, EdD, RN, executive director of NSNA. Providing a healthcare environment that is ethnically diverse will be crucial to quality, equal access health care in the future, Manecci said. "We’re looking at the safety net here," he said. "In 25 years, we will not have a majority of any one population. We need to start bringing in more minorities. It’s common sense."
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Closing
the Gap