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But most racial and ethnic minorities are still underrepresented
in nursing when compared with the general U.S. population.
About 5 percent of nurses are African American, compared
with 12.2 percent of the population, according to the
sample survey.
About 3.5 percent are of Asian or Pacific Islander
descent, compared with about 4 percent of the general
population. Hispanic nurses, although the fastest-growing
group between 1996 and 2000, are the most underrepresented
in nursing. Two percent of all nurses in 2000 came from
a Hispanic background, compared with 11.4 percent of
the general population.
"We're seeing some" minority applicants for
nursing jobs, said Karen DeLevan, senior recruiting
consultant for Texas Health Resources in Dallas. "But
not as many as we'd like.
"The diversity recruitment program is a very high
priority issue. We want to mirror the community that
we serve so that there's a comfort level and a support
system."
The prevalence of certain diseases such as diabetes
and hypertension among certain ethnic groups is a strong
reason to recruit more minority nurses, said Willa Doswell,
Ph.D., RN, FAAN, assistant professor at the University
of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and a member of the
advisory committee for the American Nurses Association's
Ethnic and Minority Fellowship program. "Given
the health disparities in the country with African Americans
and other minorities, yes, we do need more minorities
in nursing," she said.
Clinics and hospitals that serve specific populations
find themselves in a double bind during a nursing shortage,
competing with other health care facilities for nurses
from certain backgrounds or with certain language skills.
The Indian Health Service, which serves American Indians
on reservations, now has more than 400 openings for
nurses, said Deb Wilson, program coordinator for the
RAIN program at the University of North Dakota in Grand
Forks. "They're really in dire straits in terms
of needed nurses out there," she said.
Genny Rosario, RN, clinic head nurse at Asian Health
Services in Oakland, Calif., said she has been advertising
for a year without success for Cantonese-speaking nurses.
About 75 percent of the clinic's clients speak Cantonese
and all the nurses there speak at least one Asian language
besides English, she said. She is Filipina and can speak
to patients from the Philippines, but needs a translator
to speak to patients in other languages.
"It's very difficult," she said, first to
find qualified RNs, then to find qualified RNs who speak
Cantonese. "It's double jeopardy for us."
Many Asian families consider nursing a good job, Rosario
said. Asian youth understand nursing pays decent salaries
and is a respected profession. "But somehow that's
not enough to attract them," she said. Asian high
school students she talks to say they would rather go
into physical or occupational therapy or become pharmacists.
"They're in another frame of mind," she said.
Until her niece graduated from high school, she wanted
to be a nurse, Rosario said. "She always said,
'I want to be like you, Auntie.' But then she graduated
and she told me, 'I want to be sitting in an office
and looking at a computer and wearing a lab coat, not
dealing with a patient.' She didn't want to be dealing
with the blood, the patient injections. She saw the
work as dirty."
Viola Benavente, MSN, CNS, RN, has three children,
none of whom want to follow in her footsteps. "They
said they would never even consider entering the profession
because they saw me work so hard," said Benavente,
assistant professor in the department of acute care
nursing at UTHSC and a member of the board of directors
of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses.
They remembered how she worked double shifts and spent
weekends and holidays at the hospital. "They didn't
want that kind of job. Those holidays are important.
[That is] family time. They see nursing as hard work
that takes you away from your family."
Recognizing the importance of family is important both
in recruiting students to a nursing school and in retaining
them, Benavente said. Many Hispanic families are reluctant
to let their children go away to school, even if the
school is only 50 miles away. Once in school, many families
do not understand why the student must spend so much
time studying instead of taking care of family responsibilities.
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