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Programs like the Recruitment and Retention of American Indian Nurses at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks have become models not only for attracting minorities to nursing, but for getting them through school, into the workforce and, in many cases, back to school for advanced degrees.

When Christopher Lee Navarrette, a nursing student at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, missed his grandmother's funeral because he had exams and a huge paper due, members of his large, close family were hurt and appalled.

"I tried ad nauseam to explain it, but some of them just could not understand," said Navarrette, president of the student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. "Family is a wonderful thing, but when they don't understand what's going on, it can be a problem."

Navarrette has used his experience to support and encourage fellow Hispanic nursing students as a mentor in UT's "Juntos Podemos" (Together We Can) program. The program, which pairs experienced and beginning students of similar backgrounds, helps students feel that they are not isolated, that they have support from people who understand what they're going through.

For the Hispanic students he mentored, the most difficult part of school "was their interpersonal relationships with their families," Navarrette said. "Half of them had their own children. They felt guilty about being away for so long from their families. It's a big challenge for Latino nursing students coming in."

Although the number of racial and ethnic minority nurses is growing, they are still underrepresented in the profession as a whole. Nurse recruiters, community clinics and nursing schools are crying out for more minority nurses-especially bilingual nurses-in an attempt to reflect the populations they serve.

But if the profession wants to attract and keep more Hispanic, American Indian, Asian-American and African-American nurses, it needs to offer support and a welcoming attitude, say those who work to promote greater inclusion of minorities in nursing. This includes recognizing the importance of family support, the need for a social life and a sense of belonging and the value of speaking a second language.

Student aid

Programs like Juntos Podemos and RAIN (Recruitment and Retention of American Indian Nurses) that aim to support minority students in all aspects of their lives have become models for not only attracting minorities to nursing but for getting them through school, into the workforce and, in many cases, back to school for advanced degrees.

Ethnic minorities make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population, according to census figures, and this percentage is expected to increase to nearly 40 percent in 2025. But 12 percent of nurses identified themselves as belonging to one or more ethnic minority groups in 2000, according to the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

As the nursing shortage intensifies, nurse leaders talk of the importance of bringing in new blood, of appealing to all sectors of the population, of looking beyond Caucasian women, who have made up the vast majority of nurses for years.

The message seems to be getting through.

The number of male and racial and ethnic minority RNs has increased rapidly in the last 20 years. The number of nurses identifying their background as one or more racial minority groups or as Hispanic/Latino has tripled between 1980 and 2000, and the representation of minority nurses has increased from 7 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2000, according to the nursing sample survey.

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