[Rosepink]

I have been a level III NICU RN for 13 years and have never worked with any other African American Nurses. Where is everbody. I have worked in 3 diffren hospitals and have seen no one. I work county hopital with a 50 bed NICU. I would just like to talk to some one of my culture about experences.

[dawngloves]

Hi Rose and welcome!
I guess it depends on where you live and the ethnic makeup of that area.
I live in an urban area and work with several African American women and men!(Yes! This guy is like a linebacker too, but is so gentle with the babies )
Is there an association of African American nurses you can join in your area or online?
Or maybe you can move here? We really need staff!

[fergus51]

Are you serious? I am in Canada and work with a lot of black nurses (mainly from Jamaica, the west indies, etc so they aren't technically African American).

[iceNICUnurse]

Dawngloves you are amazing!
Trying to steel all the nurses here
Maby I will have to come and work with you, they are letting a few go in my unit due to budget problems

[fergus51]

No, come to Canada. We need nurses too

[denicu]

In a 50 bed unit in a major teaching hospital in Philadelphia i was the only black NICU RN for aprox 12 yrs. Our unit had about 45 nurses. I was born in Jamaica so i use the term "black" instead of African-American. There were many nurses(AA) in the hospital, they just werent working in NICU. I have since left the unit and now they have 6 A-A nurses out of 50. I work full time agency and i have been in just about all the hospitals in Phila and surrounding areas and the picture is still the same. Phila has a large Hispanic population and the other day we had a family that didnt speak any english. They dont have any spanish nurses and the language bank was close(for a translator_ so we had to call one of the security guard to do the translation. That night i heard one of staff saying-" I dont know why they dont hire a spanish speaking nurse".

[Rosepink]

Thank for the reply, in all the hopsitals I have worked there were black nurses also but not in NICU. Have you ever talked to any other black nurses and ask them about comming to NICU? Most of them I have talked to have various reasons why they do not want to work in NICU. I just feel that the familes in inner city county hospital were I work, would benifit from having nurses from their own culture sometimes. I would love to here more from you about your experiences in the NICU

[TristateRN]

Originally posted by denicu
In a 50 bed unit in a major teaching hospital in Philadelphia i was the only black NICU RN for aprox 12 yrs. Our unit had about 45 nurses. I was born in Jamaica so i use the term "black" instead of African-American. There were many nurses(AA) in the hospital, they just werent working in NICU. I have since left the unit and now they have 6 A-A nurses out of 50. I work full time agency and i have been in just about all the hospitals in Phila and surrounding areas and the picture is still the same. Phila has a large Hispanic population and the other day we had a family that didnt speak any english. They dont have any spanish nurses and the language bank was close(for a translator_ so we had to call one of the security guard to do the translation. That night i heard one of staff saying-" I dont know why they dont hire a spanish speaking nurse".

Just wondering if this is by choice (the AA nurses just don't want to work in NICU) or do they apply and just don't get accepted? I live in NJ 35-40 minutes from Philly and I always figured if I couldn't get into a NICU unit after I graduated here, I could always go across the bridge to Philly......now your making me wonder?

[dawngloves]

I have found that the ration of Caucasian to African American RNs the same wherever I worked. Roughly 10% of the RNs were AA.
BUT, I have worked with more AA aides and LPNs than caucasian. And some of them could take me to school! I have asked them why they don't back to school and they don't think they could do it! I think it is a product of being in a society that does not encourage women to succed, African American women most of all.

[NICU_Nurse]

This is certainly not the case with the hospital I just left. Most of the administration was African-American, a huge population of the nurses were from various areas in Africa (particularly Nigeria) and the Caribbean, and on our NICU, I (caucasian) was in the minority- the majority of the NICU nurses were either African-American, Creole, or Philipino. Our manager was Creole, her manager was African-American, and two of our three assistant supervisors were also African-American. It was an extremely diverse population of nurses and a very interesting place to work. Keep the faith!