Visions of Success of Minority Nursing Students - Research Paper Example

?Running Header: ACHIEVING A RACIALLY ACCOMODATING ENVIRONEMNT A Plan of Action for Achieving a Racially Accommodating Environment in the Nursing Programs of California Junior Colleges First Name Last Name University Name Class Professor Date Introduction The state of California, with its promise of a glamorous and an affluent life, has been an attractive destination for the immigrants for many decades. This huge surge of incomers has gradually resulted in increasing economic, societal, and academic issues, notably the rising poverty rate and deterioration of educational standards for the minority, most importantly, the ‘colored’ youth. The following paper will closely examine the changing demographics of this state, comprehensively detail the poverty and family structure trends among the minority youth, deeply discuss the ethnic irregularities in the constitution of the registered nurses of the state, as well as ultimately lead towards a plan of action detailing with the establishment of an educational institution targeting the neglected minority youth. According to a survey conducted in 2001 by the National Center for Children in Poverty in the State of California, in the past two decades the Hispanic youth has turned out be the biggest segment living in poverty, going from 41 % in 1983 to 61% in 2000. The rate of poverty of other minority youth pretty much remained the same. In addition, it was found that the poverty rate for the immigrants' children is 29%, and is a far bigger number than the poverty rate for non-immigrant youth, which is only 17%. As far as the family structure is concerned, the 48% of the poor youth are from two-parent families, 42% are from mother-only families, 6% are from father only families, whereas remaining 4% are without both parents (Palmer et al, 2002). These findings show that the minority youth population is increasing significantly; a large portion of it, while living in single parent families, is suffering from poverty. Secondly, we will examine the actual nursing force of the state of California, where African Americans, Hispanic and other marginal groups are vastly underrepresented (Coffman et al 2001). This trend is highlighted by another study carried out in 2004. It was found that between 2000 to 2001, among the percentage of students graduating in all the nursing programs, the White Americans constituted 45.82%, Hispanics were 19.63%, African American were only 7.76%, and the rest were composed of Filipinos, Asians and other groups (Seago & Spetz, 2005). On the whole, these facts clearly depict that the minority youth’s living standards are worse than the white youth, and that they generally do not chose to adopt the nursing field. This may lead us to the conclusion that the major problem is unavailability of the funds, which hinders the minority students from entering the nursing programs, but that is not true. The hesitation to choose nursing as a career stems from many cultural, racial, as well as biased ideologies possessed by both the students and the academia. On one side, we have minority students, reportedly, considering nursing as a ‘women field,’ and also balking at the idea of studying from a majority white faculty; on the other side, we have NCLEX-RN, allegedly, having ‘white’ influenced exam questions (Seago & Spetz, 2005). No matter what the actuality is, the need for an institution with a culturally accepting attitude, a solid outreach program and a caring faculty cannot be denied. Background and Problem Statement As a part of an investigation carried out to discover the supposed barriers faced by the minority nursing students in central California, seventeen recently graduated registered nurses were thoroughly interviewed (Amaro, Abriam-Yago, & Yoder, 2005). Upon analyzing the result, it was realized that the major perceived barriers by the minority colored youth were the inadequate language competency, insufficient finances and most importantly the biased attitude from the educators. Minority students generally face a lot of domestic and personal challenges, such as difficult relationship situations, unsupportive family members, tough part time jobs, and scarcity of time period. These students feel that usually their life struggles are not acknowledged by the teachers in circumstances, such as a late submission of an assignment. Furthermore, it was found that majority of students have, at least once, faced a prejudicial remark, either from a teacher or from a fellow student. An example would be students always referring to ‘one certain teacher,’ who makes insensitive remarks about student’s diverse backgrounds, resulting in the drop outs of many students (Amaro et al 2005). Therefore, the ethnic students firmly stated that they do not want to compound their problems by enrolling in a program, where they are constantly reminded of their cultural differences. At the same time, the educators usually contest that the reason for the small percentage of ethnic students entering and successfully completing the nursing programs is due to their general non serious attitude towards the studies. For example, between the years 2001 and 2002, the Asian and African students had the lowest on-time finishing rate in nursing programs and the smallest first time pass-rate of NCLEX-RN (Seago & Spetz, 2005). After studying the behavior of both students and teachers, we can argue that both of these sides are somewhat right in their justifications, but at the same time they are hugely influenced by their inherent and dated cultural and racial beliefs. The students are right in claiming that there is a presence of discriminatory environment in the nursing schools, but at the same time their views are influenced by the past bitter experiences, and also by a general unwillingness to enter a white dominated discipline. Similarly, teachers are warranted in associating the low passing rates to the ethnic students, but, instead of stereotyping, they should admit other short-comings, such as the absence of proper resources, English as a second language and lack of appropriate mentoring. To summarize, it can be claimed that to increase the number of minority attendance in the nursing schools, major actions should be taken by the policy makers and community leaders, such as introducing an alternate admission criteria and other economic and social policies. However, this academic plan will focus on the actions that can be taken by a local community college to increase enrollment and decrease attrition of minority students in the nursing degrees. Therefore, in accordance with the above discussion, it can be proposed that the main problem lies with the psychological thinking and general behavior of all the concerned parties. The misconceptions harbored by both teachers and students are continual because of the absence of a nurturing and neutral academic environment, which strives towards finishing the fears of students and creating awareness among the teachers. Goals and Alternatives With the increasing number of immigrants from various backgrounds, the Californian nurse workforce needs to employ the personnel from diverse backgrounds and should mirror the composition of the population in general. The recent statistics show that by the year 2020 the non-white population of United States is expected to increase by 50%; however, this surge is not well represented in the field of nursing (Gilchrist & Rector, 2007). Now, when we look at the state of California, the “demographic characteristics of the nursing workforce are different from those of the California population as a whole” (Seago & Spetz, 2005). Therefore, there is a dire need to set up an institution with realistic and beneficial goals which not only attracts the colored youth and advances the local community, but also provides a respecting and cultivating environment. Therefore, to set up the goals of this institute, a look at a comprehensive framework provided by the Jim Cummins (1986) to attract and empower the minority students will be advantageous. According to him, for any educational institute striving to target and retain ethnic students, focus should be on amending and strengthening three relationships which are: classroom interactions of teachers and students, the level of association between the school and surrounding diverse community, as well as finally the relationship with the overall society (Cummins, 1986). Therefore, the primary objective of this local institute should be having a team of professional educationalists who are extremely aware of the affirmative action which involves being sensitive towards the racial and ethnic diversity of the students. Secondly, the establishment needs to have a specific and inspirational outreach program to attract diverse students, especially males, to the nursing discipline. Thirdly, the students should be provided an empowering and growing environment where appropriate mentoring programs and other resources, such as financial aid and career placement services, are readily available. According to Phillippe and Sullivan, “the hallmark of community colleges has always been flexible and rapid response to learners’ needs,” and to stay competitive the “renewed emphasis on workforce and teacher preparation” is required (2005). Therefore, having a faculty which is properly trained in managing the diverse student body will hugely benefit both in the short and long term. There is no denying that the presence of a teacher, who is attentive to cultural and linguistic differences, hugely impacts the student’s morale and confidence in a positive manner. The current students and their families will certainly feel the difference between the considerate teaching methods adopted in the new institution, as compared to previous schools. Eventually, the institute will garner a reputation of being an ‘ethnic friendly’ institution. Nonetheless, it must be noted that that preparing the faculty to adopt a more understanding attitude does not mean compromising the quality of the education; instead it merely refers to refraining from any conscious or unconscious behavior which may be hurtful or demeaning to marginal students. In addition to improving the teacher’s teaching methods, a major overhaul of the ideological thinking of students is also required. The ethnic high school students usually harbor certain misgivings towards the white faculty members which are also aggregated by the injustices faced by them in personal life. Therefore the typical recruitment strategies that work for white students might not work for non-white students. Furthermore, the actual problems faced by the most of the colored youth, such as domestic abuse, language incompetency and financial crisis, should also be acknowledged and properly dealt with. Let us examine the example of a minority recruitment program adopted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Nursing, known as Health Careers Bridge Program (Bryan, 2007). This program targets the students in the last year of their junior high school and offers a summer long course which includes information session, visits to hospitals, meetings with congressmen and, most importantly, college preparation seminars. From this program, we can deduce that introducing a similar program at the local community college will enhance the overall interest of the students. The idea is to project a positive image of the nursing profession to the minority students by offering them educational assistance and also showing them real professionals at work. In the short term, the execution of this program will boost the confidence level of current students and attract a large amount of potential students. In the long term, the local community will be economically and socially strengthened by the presence of an institution that is committed to recognizing, accepting and promoting diversity. The next section will explicitly delineate the actions required to reach the aforementioned goals. Plan of Action To realize the objectives discussed in the previous section and to set up a successful institute that meets the needs of local diverse community, a comprehensive and detailed plan of action is required. First of all, the governing management should have a clear vision of the institute future and should adopt a uniform ideology and attitude towards the minority students. Once the administration firmly and consistently believes in the underlying mission of the institute, the appropriate employment and training of educators can take place. During the interview process, proper means should be adopted, such as situation questions and diversity focused questionnaires, to find out if the applicant’s inherent beliefs match with the institute ideology. Only those interviewees that possess the required accommodating attitude should be allowed to proceed to the next step of hiring procedure. Also, if socially and legally possible, the appointment of colored teachers should be encouraged, as it will provide minority youth with role models. Therefore, once the teachers are hired, due diligence must be carried out in properly training and synthesizing them into the college’s culture. Appropriate diversity trainings and culture awareness workshops should be provided to prepare the teachers in facing the racially diverse environment within classrooms. As we have already established, and also further proved by various studies, that minority students who receive a high degree of understanding and support from their teachers are far likely to successfully complete their nursing degree, and at the same time presence of reliable mentors and role models will likely increase the likelihood of minority students choosing nursing programs (Zappaterreno, 2006). This brings us to the next step which is the crucial task of designing and implementing a notable outreach program for the potential students. All the creative minds of the administration and faculty should be brought together to outline an effective plan where the focus should be on contacting and connecting. The college will require building professional links with the high schools in the targeted communities. Once these connections are created, it will get easier reaching the desired students. Among other things, fundamentally the program should include the information sessions, which provides insight regarding the duration, format, fee structure and admission requirements of various nursing degrees. While visiting the high schools, it will be beneficial to take senior students which can serve as role models, for example, a male African American nurse eloquently narrating his interesting professional experiences will certainly capture attention of many ethnic students. Other experiences, such as allowing high school students to spend a day at the college, allowing them to sit in classes and encouraging them to talk to teachers and students, will definitely motivate otherwise uninterested students to seek more information about this career path. Overall, the program should aim towards breaking the stereotypes associated with nursing profession and promising students an accepting environment. Lastly, the stress should be towards providing the quality education and other required resources to the students. The college should build networks with other social organizations present within the community to provide the proper help to students in need. This aid can be in the form of counseling and development, financial assistance and advocacy needs. The minority students attending the institution should feel secure and confident every way possible. In the end, it should be remembered that the primary objective is the same as the one set by the American Nurses Association which is to construct a “diverse workforce” (Gooden, Porter, Gonzalez, & Mims, 2001). Therefore, each and every action undertaken should be in convergence with this fundamental goal. Evaluation Criteria and Measuring Progress To determine the effectiveness of the above-mentioned plan, among other approaches, the most useful method will be surveying the teachers and students. To measure the effectiveness of the educators training procedures, it will be hugely constructive to survey the teachers upon completion of the workshops. It will help in determining whether trainees have experienced any change in their outlook or experienced any awareness regarding dealing with minority students. Afterwards, their performance can be measured by surveying their students. Similarly, the value of outreach program can be determined by interviewing and surveying the high school students. Keeping statistical data of students from different high schools, registering and attending the information sessions, as well as enrolling in the nursing degree will immensely help in providing valuable information to tweak the program. On the whole, the full impact of this plan can be seen by any increase or decrease in the enrollment of minority students in future semesters. References Amaro, D. J., Abriam-Yago, K., & Yoder, M. (2006). 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(2006). Predicting nursing student success: a study of factors for one nursing school in southern California. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California Press. Read More