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She recalled one student in the Juntos Podemos program
who was having a hard time taking tests. It turned out
that the student's husband was picking a fight with
her before each exam because he didn't understand why
she needed time to study. With help from her mentor
and faculty, the student arranged for a part-time, less
strenuous schedule that gave her more time for her family.
She and her husband had a long talk, and he agreed to
take on more household and child care responsibilities
so that she could study, Benavente said.
Winning over the family is important in many Asian
communities, as well, said Kem Louie, Ph.D., CS, RN,
FAAN, past president of the Asian American/Pacific Islanders
Nurses Association, which means nursing schools must
adopt a more personal approach. "You've got to
go out to the families. You've got to meet them in the
schools. It takes a little bit more effort to make that
part of your marketing."
Location plays an important part in where African Americans
decide to go to school, Doswell said.
Nursing schools in Atlanta and Baltimore, for example,
may have an easier time attracting African Americans
because they have large African-American communities
and can offer students a social life as well as an academic
one, she said.
Less than 5 percent of students are African American
in the graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh,
where Doswell teaches. "They think the program
is good," she said. "But they would like a
more socially relevant background."
Asian students also want to go to schools where they
see Asian students and faculty, Louie said. "Nobody
wants to be the only one," she said. "You
want to go on campus and see someone who looks like
you."
Cornelia Porter, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, associate professor
at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and
former director of the American Nurses Association's
Ethnic and Minority Fellowship program, suggested attracting
non-Caucasian nursing students with a "critical
mass" approach-bringing in a group of students
from racial and ethnic backgrounds who would be able
to support each other as they progressed through the
program.
It is unethical to bring members of underrepresented
groups into a school or college of nursing that is not
"minority friendly," she said.
Before the RAIN program started in 1990, the University
of North Dakota had graduated 18 American Indians from
its bachelor's degree in nursing program since 1973,
Wilson said. Between 1999 and spring 2003, the university
will have graduated 104 American Indians from its bachelor's
degree program and 20 from its master's program, she
said.
RAIN offers financial and personal assistance to American
Indian nursing students who agree to work for the Indian
Health Service after they earn their degrees. This assistance
includes paying rent or car insurance, baby-sitting
and helping with writing papers or studying for tests.
"It takes everything to get them through,"
Wilson said. "You're not just dealing with the
student, you're dealing with students and their families,"
which for many American Indians includes children, spouses,
aunts and uncles, grandparents and parents. Family responsibility
and the crises that go with it "always come into
play," she said.
For many students, just coming to a big university
campus from a reservation or small town can be a frightening
and overwhelming experience, said Marlene Buchner, MS,
RN, nursing tutor and mentor for the RAIN program. She
remembers her own experience as a student coming to
the university from a town of 318 people in Minnesota.
She felt lost and didn't know where anything was.
The RAIN staff "took me under their wing,"
she said. "We are the most important support for
the students. We're here and we're like their family
away from home."
RAIN also helps bridge the cultural gap between the
"circular" way of thinking on the reservation
and the "linear" expectations of many Caucasian
university professors, Buchner said. "Learning
in the circular way is having everything connected.
It's like telling a story, not just the facts but how
everything intersects. But sometimes the teachers just
want the facts."
RAIN staffers stay in touch with the students even
after they leave school, Wilson said. "We've found
that our students are our best recruiters."
In turn, she feels comfortable sending graduates to
work for nursing directors and supervisors who have
graduated from the program. When she goes out to reservation
health centers on recruiting missions, the graduates
welcome her warmly. Others send letters asking for information
on the program for colleagues who want to return to
school.
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