“For the past decade, minority groups have drastically increased to make up 30% of the Washington State population. In contrast, the percentage of minority nurses has risen to make up only 14.5% of the profession.”
“Ethnic minorities continue to experience health disparities in the United States. Based on consistent research evidence, the National Academies of Medicine endorse a diverse healthcare workforce that mirrors the population they serve as a critical strategy to achieve health equality. Multiple nursing leadership boards support the hiring of more minority nurse educators to promote academic success for minority students based on robust research findings; however, the lack of diversity in nurse faculty remains an ongoing issue both nationally and in Washington State. The Washington Center for Nursing (WCN), an organization dedicated to building a diverse, highly-qualified nursing workforce, found that faculty diversity (18%) lagged behind student diversity (25%) in Washington in 2017. In response, the WCN established a Diversity Committee in 2017, and one of its overarching goals is to promote the recruitment and retention of minority nurse faculty in Washington. The committee recognized that to achieve this goal, they needed to assess minority nurses’ perspectives on becoming nurse educators. With Chinese Americans as the fastest-growing ethnic minority population in the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area and this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student’s connection with the Pacific-Northwest Chinese Nurses Association, the Diversity Committee requested that this student conduct an assessment project on Chinese American nurses. The purpose of this DNP project was to examine the facilitators and barriers for Chinese American nurses to become nurse faculty. The outcome of this project will guide WCN’s strategies to recruit more Chinese American nurse faculty in Washington.” Read full report…
