Not many Black/African American nurses working in the ICU's

Specialties CCU

Published

Hello,

I have worked in the 3 different CVICU's in the past 8 years and there is always less than 5 AA nurses in the unit. Why?

Specializes in critical care, PACU.

Given that the percentage of AA nurses is only 3-4% depending on your source, it follows that you wouldn't find as many of them on the unit.

I do agree, that it is a regional thing, too. Which also makes sense statistically, since different regions have different concentrations of ethnic populations.

Specializes in PCU, LTC.
I don't know why there are always people that think everything is about race. I know there is racism in this world but not everyone or everything is related. In my hospital, the majority of nurses and techs are either white or fillipino. If you look at the majority of nursing students that round through there, they are white and fillipino. When I was doing my pre-reqs for nursing school I rarely had black classmates. So where did the racism originate? In the hospital hiring managers, in the nursing school admissions personnel, or the admissions department to the college? I mean seriously?! :eek:

It seems you've hit on the problem, and missed the problem all at the same time. Since you can't see where the racism originated, you assume it must not be racism, yet the reason you can't see where the racism originated is because it originated before birth. Generally speaking, minorities get lower quality prenatal care, lower quality medical care at birth, lower quality preschool education, lower quality grade school education, and lower quality secondary school education. Then, when searching for a job, they have to work against overt, and covert racism, and while hospitals likely won't engage in overt racism, covert racism certainly DOES exist. Once they finally DO get a job, they then have to deal with both overt, and covert racism to move ahead in that job, and in that regard, hospitals ARE guilty. The unit I'm employed on has a single Fillipino nurse, and 3 white male nurses, every other nurse on the unit is a white female, I hear derogatory comments about the Fillipino nurse all the time when people think no one else is listening, if you think that doesn't translate to missed opportunities for her, you're only kidding yourself. She's easily in the top 10%, as far as quality, of nurses I've ever met, yet her career is going nowhere, and it's not because she wants it to go nowhere.

Everywhere I've looked, the further you go up the ladder the higher the proportion of white male nurses, and the lower the proportion of all other nurses, with black and hispanic females suffering the largest losses. While individual preferences explain individuals not moving up the ladder, it does not explain the steady loss in proportion all the way up the ladder.

This coming from a white male nurse in an urban hospital that serves a community that's nearly 40% hispanic. If you think not having hispanic nurses has no effect on quality of care in a hispanic community, you're also just kidding yourself. Many of our patients speak very little English on a unit where no one speaks Spanish, and have cultural needs that no one understands.

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

In some parts of the country, part of this disparity probably originates from where we all started: the nursing schools. For my grad school degree, I attended a state university in a city with a predominantly black population. The tri-county metro area is very segregated, the city is black and poor while the suburbs are affluent and predominantly white -- a perfect example of an area plagued by "white flight" during the 50's all the way to the 70's. This nursing school has done its part in keeping a diverse student population by admitting students from different races reflective of the entire metropolitan area.

Many white students fit the typical profile of college students anywhere. Many are admitted after graduating from high school in the suburbs, many choose to live with their parents while in college in their suburban middle class neighborhoods. Non-black minorities such as Asians and Middle-Easterners share the same kind of home life and may have even graduated from the same high schools as the whites. The one difference is that they are typically raised by parents who are first generation immigrants to the US and now have stable jobs and are typically middle class.

Many black students, however, do not share the same life experiences as the other groups. Some come from families where not one member have earned a college degree, some are older and have been out of high school to join the workforce for a while, some postponed their college education to raise a child, some got a GED later. Not meeting the prevailing profile in the other groups, it is not surprising at all that many of the black students have a lot more barriers to success in college than the other groups.

A number of my NP peers were involved in a mentorship program sponsored by the university to help these non-traditional students achieve the goal of a college degree in nursing. I feel that efforts such as these are needed to make sure students who would otherwise struggle because of socioeconomic barriers have an equal chance to succeed.

Specializes in Critical Care.

I have been practicing nursing for 16 years and 12 of those have been in the ICU. I have had the opportunity to do travel nursing in the specialty as well and I have seen a varying mixture depending on the geographical location. I have found just the opposite but the question that has been posed is why are AA new grad nurses aren't more visible. We see the disparity but the norm has blinded us not to bother with the status quo.

This may have some weight behind it!! Honestly speaking, I had been an RN for almost 5 yrs now almost 7. However, I had applied at a Catholic hospital for ICU/SICU/CCU and was passed over and given a CV stepdown position. The new grads, all white, filled 7 spots. All were in CCU, ICU and 1 even went to CVICU. Needless to say the one in CVICU went home crying every night and quit as soon as her mandatory year was up.

Funny in my pre-nursing classes, the overwhelming majority of the students are minorities, mostly black females. I do believe this is a reprensestion of the area but not entirely. Here in westchester county NY the majority is white, but because it sits near to CT, NJ, Rockland county and NYC the classes are VERY diverse. I do notice that most nurses in my hospital are white and the techs are black or Spanish but this trend is going to change in the coming years, especially in nursing. There are many factors that play into this and I honestly dont want to debate the subject. Unless you are a minority, your on the outside looking in and there are some points that are lost in explanation.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I just started my first nursing position on a stepdown unit. My unit is HUGELY culturally diverse. My preceptor is Loatian, the floor Educator is Filipino, the manager is Canadian. Nurses run the beige to brown to black color gamut, the accents are crazy and melodious and the perspectives both enriching and unique. It is VERY valuable. Not only do so many speak other languages, many are able to cue in when a cultural expectation or norm is making a situation tense or frustrating or just ineffective. I find the claim that cultural diversity isn't valuable to be rather ignorant to be honest. It is. I just can't see how there is room to argue with that.

Educational opportunities are not the same across the United States. Even the most remedial sociology class can point out the differences in the availability of resources, the effects of exposure to violence, crime and poverty on the ability to learn, dream, grow, prosper....not to mention the far-reaching influence of familial history and ingrained expectations (or lack thereof). The leap to even finish high school is impossible for some, let alone the idea of chasing the dream of college. Even if the will is there, the emotional support and financial ability all too often is not. Racism aside, the United States has a poverty of opportunity for those not born into it - as much due to psychosocial reasons as political ones. We cannot see nursing or any other profession excel and diversify until that fact is acknowledged more openly and addressed aggressively. The lack of diversity in the profession itself is simply testimony to where resources, opportunities, living conditions and psychosocial aspects are stronger. And that is what needs to be addressed.

Recruitment into the field cannot ignore the value gained in a diverse workplace. While this does not need to equate to favor being shown to minorities in placement to the exclusion of whites, it DOES need to address the disparity present in the opportunies and support given, not just at the career level but all the way down into the youngest of schools. Not everyone will have the strength or support needed to move past the challenges that face them if they are of a minority group, particularly if they live in poverty, illegal status or violence. But for those who have the dream, we must find a way to offer the support that enables them to reach forward. Our entire profession can only benefit. Heck, our entire country can only benefit. And don't get me started on giving grants to non-U.S. citizens to pursue a career here when our own citizens struggle to find a way. I am against Affirmative Action, but only because it fails to address the root of the problem. The interventions must go back further to result in a truly even playing field.

Just my thoughts on the subject of diversity, from a middle class white chick who really IS a minority on her stepdown unit. I have no idea what the diversity ratios are in the CC units. Hope to find out in a couple of years. ;)

This is true. I was a secretary in an ICU and wanted an Internship after I graduated nursing school. I was told that it was not an internship available at the time. I went over my manager to the director for the internship; I got it. I am now working in the same ICU unit that I was secretary. My director was African American and so am I. I also noticed that the girl that took my place as secretary went the same path as I did. She is also African American. She was told that we were not hiring new grads anymore and that it would be a role strain for her to be hired in the unit. She went to a med surg floor and my unit not only had positions open, but they hired 2 Caucasian nurses; one graduated with the secretary. So yes there is a difference and I am the only African American that work in the unit.

Specializes in NICU.

I think there a variety of factors that contribute to the OP's observation. One , there just arent many African American nurses for reasons already addressed by previous posters. Second, your region really plays a big part in it too. I have lived in a very segregated community my entire life. I was one of five black students to graduate my predominately white high school. I was the only black student in my nursing class and now I am the only black nurse in my NICU (our staff is almost 120 nurses). While I don't feel like I am anyone special or grand for finishing nursing school and landing this position ( I went to school with great as equally educated people who are all doing great things) I often get comments from the parents of my minority patients about me about being an RN and asking me if I'm a nurse 'like everyone else ' on the unit. On the other hand I often find that some parents whom I've observed being more distrustful of my non- minority coworkers are more open towards me, but I can't be one to say its definitely because of my race. I believe if I moved to a different less segregated region, it simply would not be like this. However in some places, a huge racial divide still exists.

Specializes in none.
Hello,

I have worked in the 3 different CVICU's in the past 8 years and there is always less than 5 AA nurses in the unit. Why?

Why does this bother you?

Specializes in ICU/PACU.

I don't know......I do think it's regional. Where I am now there aren't many black nurses, or white nurses for that matter. I work in the float pool and find it interesting that each unit has a majority race. For example, the neuro ICU has more African American nurses than any unit I've seen in this hospital. The CVICU is pretty much all Filopino. There's a couple of tele units that are all filopino and they rarely speak English, although it's against policy.

I would bet that if a white man interviewed for an ICU or ER position and you interviewed for it too, he would get it. I'm seeing more and more men get charge nurse positions over the years when I can think of plenty of women who would have been well suited for the job.

I don't doubt that you have a point, the more I'm working in more culturally diverse locations, the more racism I see. Even against a white chick like me:)

Specializes in none.

I just want to ask the OP, What if I said I wish there were more Irish Nurses working on my unit. Of course in this wonderful melting pot of a county (where no one wants to melt) I would be a racist. But you can post that you wish there were more Black-Americans in ICU. To you and the rest of the PC world it doesn't matter if someone is qualified, just so long as they are the right color. I just wish there will come a day when we can drop the ID names and just put American. But that will never happen for we are now 'Diverse'...and divided we fall.

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