African American Nurses in NICU

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2004

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 · Feb 4, 2004

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 · Feb 4, 2004

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:o

fergus51 · Feb 4, 2004

No, come to Canada. We need nurses too;)

denicu · Feb 5, 2004

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 · Feb 5, 2004

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 · Feb 5, 2004

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, BSN, RN · Feb 5, 2004

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, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2004

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!

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Feb 10, 2004

Interesting topic...never thought about it. I do know several AA nurses that are in the NICU. :)

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Feb 10, 2004

We have several :)