Life as a minority in nursing

chicagoing, ADN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

Oh, I wish I could verbalize my post instead of typing it out, but here goes.

I think that many underrepresented minorities have to work extra hard to even get to a level playing field. My Mexican, Chicago-born college suite-mate was an example. The academics at her high school were not up to par with the suburban schools'. She had such potential, but was never challenged at her school (yet academically would flourish at mine). Her parents were not supportive of her even attending college and wanted her to stay home with the family and work (family came first). And let's not even mention the cost of college, which is burdensome for many families, especially those who are working more blue-collar jobs.

It will be harder to make it in the industry, if only because some minority groups have to overcome such (above-mentioned) obstacles. They are in no way, shape, or form less intelligent or able to graduate from college or work in the health-care field.

I'm sorry, my thoughts are jumbled and I would have liked to put my thoughts together a little bit better than I have.

Saysfaa · Jan 3, 2011

"There are the ones that strive hard to accomplish there goals, but i feel they have to work extra hard. Do you feel the same way?"

No.

I see minorities actively and aggressively recruited and favored in admissions and hiring.

The vast majority of scholarships are either limited to minorities or specifically favor minorities, so many that most of them go unclaimed. Many of the employment and academic support programs are also either limited to minorities or specifically favor them.

As for crappy high schools... yes, students from crappy high schools need to work harder after high school than grads from good high schools do after high school if they take the same classes. I think they are more likely to start with lower level classes and work about as hard. Either way, they didn't have to work nearly as hard while in jr high and high school.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

Social class is a very taboo subject, and people pretend as if it does not exist. However, I firmly believe that social class plays a far more important role than racial/ethnic background in whether a minority reaches educational attainment. For example, the children of the Mexican-American attorney (upper middle class) are more likely to attend and graduate from college than the children of the Mexican-American waitress (working poor).

I am a black female who grew up in a blue-collar household where neither parent had attended college. My mom and dad are so clueless about college that they do not know how many credits one would typically need for a bachelor's degree. They also did not know that all colleges have general education requirements that a student must complete. For instance, my parents were wondering why I had to take math, science, English, and humanities classes if I wasn't planning on majoring in any of these things.

If a minority child grows up in a middle-class, well-educated household where one or both parents attended college, the transition to higher education is made smoother because Mom and Dad can provide valuable information about how the process works. The parents are also likely to encourage college attendance and instill certain values in the minority child that make success in higher education more likely.

I hope that I offend nobody when I say that the child of the migrant fieldworker has to work three times as hard to graduate than the child of the physician. While the child of the migrant worker might have all the brains and smarts in the world, it is the child of the physician who typically has the upbringing, financial backing, connections, and other hidden privileges that make things happen in society.

All of the minority-based scholarships don't mean a thing if we don't have families, schools, and role models to encourage college attendance.

blackberrie_281 · Jan 3, 2011

and id like to add, minority based scholarship or assisstance is less important than NEED based scholarships, even though they tend to come hand in hand. to give a personal example, i am a minority (black female), yet im classified as middle class. so even though i am a minority, the amount of scholoarships i qualified for drasticly decreased. i believe more scholarships should ALSO (keyword) be available to middle class families.

Highschoolfuturenurs · Jan 3, 2011

Same here blackberrie. I qualify for very little of the minority scholarships because i'm not in "need".

Being a minority is a disadvantage for some but an advantage for others. I'm 100% hispanic and both my parents went to college in europe and in Peru. My dad has his masters in engineering and my mom in economics. So they want a good life for me too. But they know absolutely nothing about college here in the states. I had to do everything on my own. Search for scholarships, sign up for all AP's, apply for the colleges i thought were best etc.

I grew up in a bad neighborhood where i saw that all of my friends had uneducated parents and they were completely lost in life. the majority drop out and start working or get pregnant. It's pretty sad.

But i moved to the suburbs where i went to a challenging high school and that is why here i can take advantage of being a minority. A lot of local scholarships prefer giving the money to minorities to have more diversity since I live in a 95% white county. & the university im applying too gives a huge advantage to hispanics because they only have 2% hispanics in their campus. So i'm not complaining. I still have to endure a lot of racist remarks and looks but it's not something ill cry over. & succeeding feels great too because of the sterotype that we're "stupid" or meant only to work hard labor. I don't feel that I have had to work any harder as a minority, I think that's generalizing. Because not all minorities have it tough. If I was the child of newly arrived immigrants, it would be much harder. I would have to deal with the social, financial and language barriers. So I definately understand how it could be harder for them

halkogirl · Jan 3, 2011

I absolutely agree with Commuter- it has little to do with race and more to do with socioeconomic status. I am white, but I grew up incredibly poor. The town that I grew up in is very poor- the best job you can get there is in the meat packing plant. Both of my parents had (and still have) severe mental health issues. My dad spent many years in prison, and my mom worked two jobs to pay the rent. I started college but had to drop out because I could not afford it and neither parent could help me pay for it.

After I got married and had children I decided to go back to school. I have worked my behind off and I have achieved a 4.0 GPA- while working and taking care of my family. All the while, my dad lives with me because he is on disability and can't afford to pay rent on less than $700 a month.

The crappy part about it is that, because I am white, some people assume that I grew up privileged. I didn't. Everything I have in this life is because I had to work my behind off for it, on my own. And, because I am white, I got a lower placement number for the nursing program than a girl I work with, even though she has a lower GPA and less work experience than I have. She is African. That is a sure sign that my college promotes diversity.

2ndyearstudent, CNA · Jan 3, 2011

hi everyone this has been in my head for quite some time. I attend a college where 95% of the students are recognized as minorities. I am a hispanic female and i feel that there are not allot of us who attend college after high school. There are the ones that strive hard to accomplish there goals, but i feel they have to work extra hard. Do you feel the same way? Do you think that it is harder for a minority to make it in the industry. Especially in health care, I feel that diversity is important because we represent our race, our strong work of ethics. What do you think? Correct me if I am wrong but how important should diversity be in heath care. Despite the strong belief in the value of a college diploma; I feel minorities more often than not fall short to reach that goal. Feel free to express your thoughts and opinions.

I am a hispanic male, which in nursing kind of makes you Strom Thurmond compared to me.

I vehemently disagree that minority status is what makes it hard for people to accomplish their goals. Economic and social status, however, have a lot to do with it. Someone trying to move upward in social class from poverty (regardless of their ethnic background) does have a much harder time than someone born into upper classes.

If the assignments we get are any indication (your post kind of smells like assignment objectives....), the nursing profession is now and has always been concerned about access to healthcare for the underserved of all categories. Does WHO Health Disparities ring a bell for anyone?

Based on my experience working in LTC and hospitals, nursing is a fantastic way for a person who comes out of poverty or lower economic status to better their situation through extremely hard work. In my opinion, this type of mobility should be encouraged and nourished in our society. I've seen so many great examples of it and it is one of the things about the profession I really like.

"In order to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you need to have some boots."

- Senator Al Franken, during a campaign speech in Minneapolis, MN

2ndyearstudent, CNA · Jan 3, 2011

I firmly believe that social class plays a far more important role than racial/ethnic background in whether a minority reaches educational attainment. For example, the children of the Mexican-American attorney (upper middle class) are more likely to attend and graduate from college than the children of the Mexican-American waitress (working poor).

Extremely well put. I posted my response before reading yours - yours is better.

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

At my community college, I've had a few Hispanic students but thinking about it, they are definitely a minority.

Are you bilingual? If so, I believe, even if you have an uphill battle in school, this will give you a GREAT advantage in the job market. I hope to learn Spanish someday as I would love to communicate with Spanish speaking individuals still learning English. Especially communicating with Spanish speaking patients. :)

2ndyearstudent, CNA · Jan 3, 2011

Social class is a very taboo subject, and people pretend as if it does not exist. .

"Conservative" (or Neo-Conservatives, or Tea Party or Palin/Bachmann types) Americans love to pretend it doesn't exist. More accurately, they deny that it exists.

They do this because it goes against their utopian ideal that "Every American has the exact same opportunities as every other American!" In their view, to contradict this makes you Anti-American, Socialist, Communist, and probably a child molester.

The everyday Americans who subscribe to this do so because of the constant stream of propoganda they receive. They also engage in raging Confirmation Bias - only looking at data that supports their position and completely ignore or refuse all other data. (They do the same thing with issues like Tobacco Smoke, Acid Rain, CFCs, Climate Change, ad nauseum).

The idea that we indeed all have the same opportunities is a very nice thought and would be great if it was true, but it isnt.

A simple glance at historical data backs up my claim. Take a look at the outcomes for people from different economic and social classes. Do the impovershed tend to stay impovershed and the upper classes tend to stay in the upper class? If so, why is this? If everyone has the same opportunities, shouldn't there be massive shifts in class every generation based on how hard everyone works compared to their cohorts?

While we can easily cherry pick examples of people who went from rags to riches (The "American" dream), if we consider ALL the outcomes we see that the rags to riches story is indeed the exception and not the rule.

No, I'm not a socialist and I am a proud American. But I'm also a realist and in this country we have real challenges we have to face with action and not with slogans.

CBsMommy · Jan 3, 2011

Social class is a very taboo subject, and people pretend as if it does not exist. However, I firmly believe that social class plays a far more important role than racial/ethnic background in whether a minority reaches educational attainment. For example, the children of the Mexican-American attorney (upper middle class) are more likely to attend and graduate from college than the children of the Mexican-American waitress (working poor).
I am a black female who grew up in a blue-collar household where neither parent had attended college. My mom and dad are so clueless about college that they do not know how many credits one would typically need for a bachelor's degree. They also did not know that all colleges have general education requirements that a student must complete. For instance, my parents were wondering why I had to take math, science, English, and humanities classes if I wasn't planning on majoring in any of these things.
If a minority child grows up in a middle-class, well-educated household where one or both parents attended college, the transition to higher education is made smoother because Mom and Dad can provide valuable information about how the process works. The parents are also likely to encourage college attendance and instill certain values in the minority child that make success in higher education more likely.
I hope that I offend nobody when I say that the child of the migrant fieldworker has to work three times as hard to graduate than the child of the physician. While the child of the migrant worker might have all the brains and smarts in the world, it is the child of the physician who typically has the upbringing, financial backing, connections, and other hidden privileges that make things happen in society.
All of the minority-based scholarships don't mean a thing if we don't have families, schools, and role models to encourage college attendance.

I grew up in almost the exact same situation, except I am a white female, and I agree wholeheartedly with this post. Neither of my parents went to college (my step father didn't even graduate high school) so they didn't even know how to talk with me about it. My mother pushed me into a job right out of high school because I wasn't sure of the direction I wanted my life to go and even though I did want to go to college, I didn't know how to go about getting accepted or what financial aid entailed and, again, I had no guidance from my parents.

Fast forward my life: after working for 10 years in an industry that I hated, I decided to go back to college for my nursing degree. I had to work full time while taking pre-reqs one at a time and I muddled through the financial aid process by myself and I am finally one year from graduating with my ADN degree at the age of 32. It hasn't been easy but I'm glad I'm here! In fact, I was such an inspiration to my stepdad that he decided at the age of 55 to go back and get his GED and graduated last summer!

And, hopefully, my son will have an easier time with college since I've been through it and can help guide him when he's ready.