An astounding lack of diversity in nursing

[ZASHAGALKA]

https://allnurses.com/forums/f34/african-american-male-nurse-practitioners-4734.html

I pasted my comment from another thread (above) into its own thread because I'm interested in why y'all think there is such a lack of diversity in nursing and what you think the solutions should be.

This is a touchy subject, I know, so I only ask that you keep your comments respectful and constructive:

As a minority we experience many unnecessary, unexplainable things that our equal counterparts never even have to deal with, like be confused with all of the healthcare team auxillary members (CNA,house keeping,PT,RT,patient escort, lab tech, pharm tech, etc...) while having a badge that Ray Charles could see identifying us as an RN!!!!! When you pretend to yourself that it doesn't happen, it is because you have probably been guilty of it yourself. Have you noticed how receptive people are to a young (majority) male in scrubs/lab coat versus a minority male in scrubs/lab coat?????? The minority could actually be the MD and majority the scrub tech, but guess who gets the MD RESPECT?

Older thread I came across but wanted to comment on this:

First, some demographics: in the U.S. as of 2000, RNs are comprised of:

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/changingdemo/composition.htm#3.3.2

White Female: 82%

non-Hispanic African American Female: 4.9%

Asian Female: 3.5%

Hispanic Female: 2%

Native American Female: 0.7%

Mixed/Other race Female: 1.2%

White Male: 4.7%

All other Male: 1.0%

3 points:

1. The key statistic here is that only ONE PERCENT of nurses are non-white males. If I mistake a minority male as being somebody OTHER than a nurse, sure, there might be some built-in cultural bias there, but it's just as likely that it's because of the rarity of such nurses in the first place.

Now, you might argue that the rarity is the real problem and I would agree. A profession that under-represents minorities by a factor of 3 and males by a factor of 9 needs to ask itself one potent question: why?

2. I think the OP has had a difficult time over the years finding fellow minority male NPs because those nurses would be a fraction of the ONE PERCENT total number of non-white male nurses. A small pool to swim in, to be sure.

3. As demographics change, nursing is simply going to be forced to address this issue of an astounding lack of diversity in its ranks. As our nation drops below 50% "white" in the next decade or two, it will simply become unfeasible to continue to recruit 86.6% of RNs (male and female combined) from the shrinking pool of whites in this nation. Think real hard about that last statistic: something is amiss in how we recruit nurses. Something's broken and needs to be fixed.

(disclaimer: it's not my intent to be biased against LVN/LPNs, however, I got my stats from government links that only tabulated RNs.)

~faith,

Timothy.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

Here in Atlanta, there are a lot of us.

On a completely off topic note, I'm hoping to come visit your fair city for the annual Amer Assoc of Critical Care Nurse's NTI conference in May.

~faith,

Timothy.

[Huscarl73]

I am an African-American female who

I, too, am currently paying for my classes with my hard-earned dollars. Please stop spinning these bigotry-dusted inaccuracies.

And now we've done a full circle. I agree, and I don't want to see it coming my way either. I come from a broken family, I was thirteen years old buying, doing and selling drugs at 3am with nobody out combing the streets looking for me. I spent my time in state custody because there wasn't any family members to look after me. I've been released from the same custody at the age of 18 with a bus ticket and the clothes on my back. I've gone to sleep in and woken up in alleys. I've been 18 eating my meals at charities because I didn't have anywhere else to be. I've spent additional nights in jail based upon nothing but the way I looked and the length of my hair.

The 'Happy Days' are long gone, I wasn't alive then and I didn't live there and I will not acknowledge owing any debts based upon ethnicity. The only debt that I will acknowledge is to see that my children do not go through this and it's not going to be because they have activists for caucasian equality spending millions of dollars soliciting congress to create affirmitive action for them.

If we want to talk about addressing this countried 50% plus divorce rate we can find common ground there. If we want talk about seeing that children are secure and well educated we can find common ground there. If we want to say that we as a society need to supply this based upon nothing but ethnicity we're gonna have to disagree.

[gerry79]

My few random thoughts:

On an entirely different note, I have heard more than once from African-Americal parents that they would not encourage their children to pursue nursing. As we have frequently discussed here, nursing sometimes has an image problem among lay people: they focus on the perception of nurses as simply the assistants of doctors, and on the physical, "dirty" aspects of the job. Some minorities may well wish to put a great deal of distance between themselves and any career choice that could even remotely resemble the limited choice of dirty, menial jobs of the past.

Although nursing may remind minorities of the subserviant career choices their parents or grandparents where forced to embark on, I feel that education plays a major role in the absence of minorities in any health care related career. Minorities score significantly lower in math and science than do their non minority counterparts. And math and science are needed for most advanced health care careers. I say advanced because, at least in my area, minorities make up the majority of the CNA positions which do not require a heavy math or science background for entry. That said I am starting to see more minority women entering the nursing profession with asperations of becoming advanced practitioners.

I being an African American male wanted desperately to persue nursing as a career. The big obsticle blocking my path for many years were the prerequisite science and math classes needed for entry. I conquered my fear of both subjects and completed nursing school three weeks ago. Speaking for myself, I thought that I would never be able to pass chemestry or algebra and shyed away from school for almost 20 years before realizing that I was just as capable of passing as any one else.

I cant say that I was a product of my school system or environment as I had educated parents, attended good schools, and lived in an upper middle class neighborhood in my youth. I just took the path of least resistance to finish high school and never wanted to be challenged academically. Until we are not ostracized for getting good grades, shunned for speaking proper english, and being called a sellout for enjoying education, which is so prevelent in the minority (African American) community, there will be few if any minority representation in any advanced healthcare career.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Until we are not ostracized for getting good grades, shunned for speaking proper english, and being called a sellout for enjoying education, which is so prevelent in the minority (African American) community, there will be few if any minority representation in any advanced healthcare career.

This is unfortunately true. I cannot count the number of times I was told by my black classmates and relatives that I was 'acting white' for carrying books, speaking proper English, earning good grades, and studying too much. My parents still wonder why I am enrolled in science courses. One time my father queried, "What type of job will a science class get you?"

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

This is unfortunately true. I cannot count the number of times I was told by my black classmates and relatives that I was 'acting white' for carrying books, speaking proper English, earning good grades, and studying too much. My parents still wonder why I am enrolled in science courses. One time my father queried, "What type of job will a science class get you?"

This is a fascinating thread . . . thanks to everyone for their perspectives.

steph

[SillyLilly]

At my nursing job, day shift, we have 3 'white' nurses-one is a polish immigrant. The other nurses include, an immigrant from Columbia, 3 immigrants from India, a n immigrant Mexican, immigrant Korean, and 2 immigrant Filipinos. Our ancillary staff is mostly African American, which is representative of the work force in the area.

Diverse, right?

Also, in my nursing school graduating class, we had several immigrants, who came here just for nursing school/opportunities in the US. (some didnt even care to be nurses, they just knew this was an opportunity for a job).

We do not have many 2nd or 3rd generation minorities as nurses in my hospital (and have very few males). We also did not have many 2nd or 3rd generation minorities in my school either.

Basically I am saying from my experiences, even though I have been involved with diverse groups of people, I have not seen many American born minorities as a fellow nurses in schools or at my place of employment.

[Sheri257]

What I also find frustrating is that I can not get a scholarship with my GPA (3.8) because I am white. If I do apply for a scholarship that I meet the requirements for, I am competing against 100s or 1000s of other students. There are so many scholarships that minority-based that it seems like reverse discrimination to me. So, I am borrowing up the wazoo to pay for my education and will spend many years & extra shifts to pay it off. There is plenty of struggles on my end as well.

I'm going to have to agree with this. I have found a handfull of scholarships that are avaliable to me. I think without exception they are 'national' companies offering them to anyone. I can find page after page of scholarships avaliable based upon race and I don't have a problem with the idea of it. If some Indian tribes want to have scholarships for their children to go to school and then come back, no problem here. Beyond these few highly competitive programs I cannot find a single scholarship that will offset any of my education that doesn't come with terms I'm not willing to accept.

This means that I'm paying for mine as I go out of pocket.

Back to your regularly scheduled debate...

I am an African-American female who recently paid off over $20,000 in student loans. The plethora of race-based scholarships does not truly exist. The largest scholarship award I have received in my lifetime was $350.00 and it was not race-based.

I, too, am currently paying for my classes with my hard-earned dollars. Please stop spinning these bigotry-dusted inaccuracies.

Just my opinion but, I think all of you guys are wrong.

Being in California ... there were a lot of scholarships with minority preferences that I didn't qualify for. I do think there's a lot of minority money out there.

However, as a white student with a 3.75 GPA I still managed to get $4,000 in scholarships with no strings attached. And there were other white students who got a lot more money than I did.

Bottom Line: I think there's plenty of money for both minorities and non-minorities. I think it's more of a question of finding where your best shot is and focusing on areas that are most productive.

Because there's lots of scholarships that you can apply for that you won't get no matter what color you are. The hard part, IMO, is finding the scholarships that you can get. They are out there, but they're not always easy to find.

After applying for a bunch of scholarships and not getting any, I discovered that my school's scholarship drive was ultimately the most productive because they were local people who wanted to give money to local students. That's where I had the best shot and it did pay off.

:typing

[pickledpepperRN]

My family has a similar background. Gramps was sent here at age 16 to escape the Russian army. Jewish boys were snatched by the Czar's army, often never to be heard from again. Their conscription lasted up to 30 years! Or until death, whichever came first. Gramps never saw his parents, homeland, or other family members again. Ever. Ever. He worked in this country as a tailor, a construction worker, whatever he could to support himself and the wife and children he eventually acquired. My grandmother was a homemaker/seamstress. She died so very young - only about 64. She and her family escaped Jew haters in Romania.

On Dad's side, his father escaped Hitler in Austria by about 2 months. And his Mom and her family got out of Russia when her older brother was also facing the Czar's conscription/death sentence.

My relatives have all done well here, despite the large and persistent doses of anti-Semitism (from name-calling and being kept out of public parks and some hospitals to physical altercations) they had to deal with. They worked like dogs, lived crammed into the Jewish ghetto, and eventually made successes of themselves. As Garden Dove said, no one recruited them for anything. They were not college-educated because they were too busy caring for children and making sure those kids had a decent education, too busy running the stores they acquired. My own father worked 6+ days every week, from 0900-1900 Mon-Fri and 09-21 on Saturday. He helped his brother in the brother's business on Sundays and did his own bookkeeping, thereby taking about half a day on Sunday. We never had a family vacation, we all worked from age 16. Mine is the first generation to go to college. And no one recruited me for Nursing either. I just fell into it, basically.

As for how to reach Hispanics, Asians, and Negroes to be nurses - the answer is really simple enough. We have to hold Career Days in their schools, we have to get with the leaders of their churches and mosques, we have to team up with the political and community leaders in their neighborhoods. There need to be TV and radio ads and ads in the magazines they read. And, of course, the best way would be for existing nurses who are among these groups to address their own people.

Just for the record - I have worked with nurses of every race, religion, and political view, both genders and every sexual viewpoint, and from several countries - Haiti, Britain, South Africa, the Philippines, and Mexico. Most were great nurses - RN's, LPN's, NP's, anesthetists. There is room for and need for everyone. I just wish people would try to stop looking so much at race and other unrelated attributes and start focusing on character and skills. Hmm, seems to me someone said that already. I think his initials were MLK. I, too, have a dream - that one shining day we will all be able to just get along. Now peace, y'all. :balloons: :blushkiss :smiletea2: :smiletea: :smilecoffeecup:

I agree!

I also think we need to work politically for more slots in nursing schools at all levels. Especially those leading to initial licensure.

TheCommuter: I know a nice man, married to a nurse who comes frome one of the black "high class" Los Angeles families. He felt pressured to become an attorney. He hates his job but continues because it pays so well and is easy for him. It is really too bad because I think his family would support him in finding a lifes work he had some passion for.

My uncle came home from WWII and started college on the GI Bill. He came home a couple hours later. My Aunt and Grandmother asked him if he was sick he said, "No. The teacher asked how we knew we wasn't dreaming. If education is listening to such foolishness it is not for me."

Well he went to trade school, started a business, and made more money than many college graduates.

gerry79: CONGRATULATIONS! You should be very proud of yourself. We nurses need to be very proud of our work. The science and art of nursing make our lives so very worthwhile.

[smk1, LPN]

nevermind, so not worth it.

[MS._Jen_RN, ASN, RN]

But I'm thinking you have to get them interested in the first place! Interesting post.

I didn't get to read all the posts, but I would have to agree witht the above statement. I wonder if norms in minority cultures are such that there is a stigma against men as caregivers greater than there is in the "mainstream". I welcome anyone who would make a good nurse reguardless of race, color or creed.

~Peace,

Jen

[VegRN]

Of course, I cannot speak for all African-Americans. I can only speak of my situation and growing-up years.

I had a very large extended family during my childhood; however, none of my relatives were college graduates who could show me the ropes or provide guidance regarding higher education. I would estimate that at least a third of my relatives are high-school dropouts and the remaining ones are high school graduates. Luckily, I had a good high school guidance counselor and was accepted to three regional state universities.

I ended up not going to the university after high school because my parents acted as obstructionists to my education. I personally think they suffered from a fear of the unknown. After all, they did not know what a credit hour was, didn't see the purpose of general education classes, and knew nothing about the road to obtaining a degree. They refused to cosign my student loans, so I had no other way to fund my schooling.

In addition, I think my family's socioeconomic status affected their views on educational attainment. I was raised in a very working-class family of three (mom, dad, and me). My mother worked the production floor at a solar products factory for 25 years and my father bounced back and forth from steady jobs to odd jobs. The statistics indicate that the individual is more likely to attend college if their parents attended college. The reasoning is simple: parents who are college graduates know the value of education and will instill it into their offspring. If you are a first-generation college student (like me), your parents will generally be supportive if you decide to study law, medicine, or engineering. My parents believed that it would be a waste of my time if I became anything else than a lawyer.

I had a very similar upbringing. I feel going to college has way more to do with socioeconomic status than race.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I had a very similar upbringing. I feel going to college has way more to do with socioeconomic status than race.

I agree strongly. My friend, also a black female, had a very different upbringing than me. She grew up in a middle-class household, attended private schools, and visited the hairstylist weekly. Both her parents were educated professionals (mother was a nurse and father had a BBA degree in addition to owning his own business). Therefore, she always grew up with the expectation that she would attend college since her parents had instilled in her the importance of an education. As expected, she graduated with a B.S. degree six years ago. In addition, her mother is supportive of her daughter's goals to continue her schooling.

My upbringing was starkly different, as my parents were high school graduates with no college background. I grew up in a working-class household, attended lower-quality public schools, and spent plenty of time entertaining myself home alone as a latchkey child. College was not discussed in my home, and it was generally expected that I would get one of the "good" factory jobs in the industrial part of town. My high school grades were excellent and I had taken a mixture of college preparatory and honors classes, but higher education was not a real expectation with my parents.

I have no choice but to motivate myself to attend school since no one else will motivate me. I think I have done a decent job of self-motivation thus far, as I received a 4.0 grade point average last semester after being out of the college setting for 5 years.