DiversityNursing Blog

Adrian Espinosa is part of a still extremely small but growing trend in nursing. He’s a man.

Espinosa, now a student at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing, said he quickly became aware that he is a man in a field that continues to be dominated by women.

“From the first day I started nursing school last year, as one of seven males in a class of 77, I realized that I would have to find my fit in a predominately female profession,” Espinosa said. His goal is to become a nurse practitioner “to fulfill a huge gap in primary care for under-represented populations.”

 In a 2012 essay written for the American Assembly for Men in Nursing Scholarship, Espinosa said his route to his chosen career was anything but direct.

“My journey into nursing wasn’t immediate, but my path was illuminated when I began working in community public health,” Espinosa wrote. “Watching nurses and nurse practitioners work with diverse populations inspired me to pursue the nursing culture in the hope of providing accessible care for marginalized communities.

 The nursing community knows it needs more people like Espinosa in its ranks and it is working hard to increasing nurse diversity.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, in 2008, there were 3,063,163 licensed registered nurses in the United States. Only 6.6% of those were men and 16.8% were non-Caucasian. Despite efforts from nursing schools across the nation to recruit and retain more men and minorities, the results have been fairly modest.  In 2010, approximately 11% of the students in BSN programs were men and 26.8% were a racial/ethnic minority.

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This is one reason why the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND prides itself on  providing "a nursing education for leadership and moral courage" and places an emphasis on diversity.

“U-Mary is a community of learners that recognizes and respects diversity and the richness it brings to the college experience,” according the catalog of the private, Catholic university that offers degree completion and advanced nursing degrees online and on campus.

University of Mary prides itself as “community that fosters diversity through hospitality and dialogue so as to learn to live in an interconnected world.”

Why are more men and people of color needed in today’s nursing ranks? To help meet the medical and personal needs of the United States’ increasingly diverse patient population that is adding varied ethnic, racial and cultural traditions to the country. Patient stories such as these from the University of California, San Francisco are good examples.

• Selena Martinez was diagnosed with Lynch Syndrome, a genetic disease that can lead to a wide-range of cancers. It wasn't until 2008 that the Martinez family, which in just 16 years had 13 cancer diagnoses among nine people, received a conclusive diagnosis of Lynch Syndrome.
• Simone Chou, was in her last year at the University of California, Berkeley when she learned she had lupus and that her immune system was attacking her kidneys. After nine years of treatment failed to slow the deterioration, Chou and her doctors launched a nationwide search to find a compatible kidney donor. They didn’t have far to look. Michael Wong, a college friend, stepped up. Wong, a practicing Buddhist, had read many stories about Buddhist saints who donated their body parts to other people. "When I first heard Simone talk about needing a kidney transplant, I remembered those stories."
• Doris Ward is one of the pioneering African-American politicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. She started her career as a trustee of the San Francisco Community College District, became a County Supervisor in 1980, President of the Board of Supervisors in 1990 and finally moved on to spend the last 10 years as the San Francisco County Assessor. She is also a breast cancer survivor. Ward now helps other African-American women through their own journey with cancer by sending them information and helping them understand their options.

“Nursing’s leaders recognize a strong connection between a culturally diverse nursing workforce and the ability to provide quality, culturally competent patient care,” according to a policy statement by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

 “Though nursing has made great strides in recruiting and graduating nurses that mirror the patient population, more must be done before adequate representation becomes a reality,” the association statement added.

The University of Mary is ready to help ensure that the nursing ranks reflect the diversity of our nation. For a welcoming environment, online or on campus, to get your advanced practice nursing degree, contact the University of Mary.

By: Mark E. Dixon

The nursing shortage isn't going away, but a federal commission had discovered one positive side effect - the shortage has helped make nursing one of the most ethnically diverse of the healthcare professions.

That's relatively speaking, of course.

Nurses are 50 percent more likely than physicians to be minorities, according to the final report of the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce.

Even so, Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians together total only 9 percent of nurses, despite representing about 25 percent of the U.S. population. By comparison, only 6 percent of physicians are minorities.

Minorities make up about 10 percent of nursing baccalaureate faculties and 4.2 percent of medical school professors. Nurse educators are more than twice as likely to be members of a minority group as are medical school professors. 

The problem with a disproportionately white healthcare workforce is that it cannot adequately serve a population that is increasingly non-white, according to the commission report.

"Diversity in the health workforce will strengthen cultural competence throughout the health system," the commission said. "Cultural competence profoundly influences how health professionals deliver healthcare."

According to the commission, language barriers in particular are a critical issue; 20 percent of Americans speak a language other than English at home.

Minority groups receive poorer quality healthcare and experience higher mortality rates from heart disease, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mental health and other illnesses. Minority children are more likely to die from leukemia than white children. 

An increase of more than 20,000 minority nurses is needed to increase their proportion of the nursing workforce by 1 percent.

By the middle of this century, the U.S. population could be more than 50 percent nonwhite, according to the commission's report.

Recommended Strategies

Established in 2003, the Sullivan Commission was formed to recommend strategies to improve access to care and dismantle barriers to health professions' education.

Chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, the 15-member commission consists of experts from the health, higher education, business and legal arenas.

The Sullivan Commission's findings were endorsed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, whose president, Jean E. Bartels, PhD, RN, called on legislators, nursing practice leaders and nurse educators to implement the commission's recommendations.

Bartels said: "National nursing organizations, the federal Division of Nursing, hospital associations, nursing philanthropies, and other stakeholders within the healthcare community agree that recruiting under-represented groups into nursing is a priority for the profession and an important step toward addressing the nursing shortage."

Commission recommendations included:

· Health profession schools should hire diversity program managers and develop plans to ensure institutional diversity.

· Colleges and universities should provide an array of support services to minority students, including mentoring, test-taking skills and application counseling. 

· Schools granting baccalaureate nursing degrees should provide "bridging programs" that help graduates of 2-year programs transition to 4-year institutions.  Associate nursing graduates should be encouraged to enroll in baccalaureate programs.

· Professional organizations should work with schools to promote enhanced admissions policies, cultural competence training and minority student recruitment.

· To remove financial barriers to nursing education, funding organizations should provide scholarships, loan forgiveness and tuition reimbursement programs.

· Congress should substantially increase funding for diversity programs within the National Health Service Corps and Titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act.

Diversity Friendly

Meanwhile, nursing seems to be friendly to workers who are minorities.  

A study by Vanderbilt University nursing researcher Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN, showed that part of the 9 percent increase in the nursing workforce from 2001 to 2002 was due to nurses over 50 returning to the hospital.  

Hospitals are making work environments more supportive for older workers. For example, some offer scheduling flexibility and reduced physical requirements.

In addition, the acute nursing shortage and innovations such as talking thermometers have enabled nursing programs and employers to hire people with vision and hearing loss or impaired mobility.

A 2003 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that Hispanics - 13.7 percent of the U.S. population - comprise just 4.4 percent of all medical records and health information technicians, 2.8 percent of pharmacists and 1.3 percent of emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Blacks (12.8 percent) comprise 2.6 percent of physical therapists, 1.3 percent of opticians and less than 1 percent of dental hygienists.

Asians, who make up 4.2 percent of the U.S. population, are represented at that rate or higher in most healthcare segments - particularly physicians and surgeons (16.1 percent), and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians (12.3 percent). However, they are underrepresented as licensed practical and vocational nurses (3.6 percent), dental hygienists (1.4 percent) and dispensing opticians (1.3 percent).

Source: Advance for Nurses

CentraState Healthcare System located in Freehold, NJ is a nonprofit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, an ambulatory campus, three-senior living communities, a family medicine residency program, and a charitable foundation. Over the years, CentraState has employed multiple family members from numerous families in NJ.

In this “Focus on Diversity” issue of our bimonthly eNewsletter, we are featuring 4 members of the Santos family who work at CentraState – 3 family members have worked at CentraState for over 24 years! Joe Santos is the spokesperson for the Santos family.

Pat Magrath from DiversityNursing.com recently had the opportunity to chat with Joe Santos, RN and Unit Manager at CentraState’s Manor Rehab Healthcare Center. Joe said “every day is a different day working in the Rehab Center. My patience is tested daily and I love it”.

Joe grew up in the Philippines and while living there, Joe’s father was diagnosed with cancer. Joe took care of his father. He loved taking care of him and discovered he had a passion for it. Joe was always interested in science and medicine, but medical school in the Philippines was too expensive, so he became a Mining Engineer. When Joe immigrated to the US in 1989, no one needed his mining engineer skills so he went to CentraState and applied for a job as an orderly. He was hired the next day.

Joe has worked at CentraState for 24 years. While working as an orderly, he went to school and became an LPN. CentraState encouraged him to further his education and paid his tuition fees to become an RN where he is now the Unit Manager at the Manor. Over the years, Joe has been appointed Acting Director of Nursing, not once, but twice. He was happy to help out, but he was not interested in the position on a permanent basis.

Many years ago, there was a pretty lady named Evangeline living in Joe’s apartment complex. She too grew up in the Philippines and was already an RN at CentraState. They met and soon married. Evangeline has also been at CentraState for 24 years! She worked in Orthopedics for 16 years, transferred to short-stay Surgery for 2 years and currently works at the CentraState Family Medicine Center. They have 2 daughters and are expecting their first grandchild. Perhaps like their parents, they’ll be working at CentraState too!

Joe’s brother, Teodoro started working at CentraState in 1989 -- the same year as Joe and Evangeline. His career started as a cook in the hospital and 9 years ago, he became the Senior Cook at the Manor where Joe works.

Joe’s niece, Charmaine, has worked as a Patient Care Technician in the 5 North Progressive Care Unit for 6 years.

Well there you have it… 4 members of the Santos family – Joe, Evangeline, Teodoro and Charmaine... all happily and productively working at CentraState.

I had to ask… What makes CentraState such a great place to work? Joe responded… When they all immigrated to the US, they lived close to the hospital which was much smaller at the time. The convenient location and the “one big happy family” feel at the hospital, gave the Santos family a terrific opportunity for employment. They grew in their careers among genuinely friendly and caring people.

As the years have gone by, CentraState has expanded and it still feels great to be working there with talented, caring staff and family. As Joe told me, “we live in the community, work in beautiful facilities, enjoy generous benefits, and appreciate the ability to continue to grow in our careers at CentraState where we have been supported and encouraged”.

Dolores N. Napolitano, Manager of Recruitment for CentraState Healthcare System stated “we value our employees and feel like they are our family members too. When individuals who are actually blood related family work here, it makes it even more special and unique.  CentraState is their hospital in more ways than one because they live in the community and work here as well. The Santos’ are one of many multi-generational families working at CentraState and we embrace the concept and actuality of it.  It is only a part of what we do to acknowledge and support the diverse staff we have and the community that we serve".

"We welcome you and your family to visit our website http://www.centrastate.com/Careers/Nursing-Career-Information and check out our job opportunities.”

By Brian Womack - for Bloomberg

Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s largest social-networking service, is seeking a global head of diversity, as the quickly expanding company’s recruits people from different backgrounds to foster creativity.

The position includes responsibilities around employee recruitment, development and retention, the company said on its website. The diversity chief will build and manage a team focused on diversity, according to the posting.

Facebook, grappling with large rivals such as Google Inc. is ramping up hiring, growing 44 percent to 4,619 employees in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said last month the company plans to “continue to grow our headcount quickly in 2013.”

“We’re a fast-growing company, and this role will help us formalize processes that ensure we scale our diversity at the same rate,” Slater Tow, a spokesman for Facebook, said in an e- mailed statement. “In the past, our diversity and inclusion efforts were decentralized amongst many employees and, given our stage of growth, we are consolidating our work and people into one team.”

Among Facebook’s efforts is a new search service the company began to roll out last month. The company is also bolstering its mobile offerings, including an upgrade to its application for smartphones based on Google’s Android software.

While Facebook’s staff is growing quickly, it’s still much smaller than some of its rivals. Google, for example, has more than 10 times as many people.

The diversity position will be based at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

“We’ve always focused on recruiting the very best and brightest,” Tow said. “We are big believers that creativity happens with people who have different perspectives and background.”

Black History Month Facts & Figures

 

 

This article is an excerpt from Diversity Best Practices' new book, the HR Executive Diversity Primer.

What’s the best way to structure a diversity function? The answer is as individual as companies themselves. Let’s look at three organizations—Sodexo, Johnson & Johnson, and Rockwell Automation—that have established different, yet equally effective, configurations of their diversity offices.

Sodexo, Inc.

With 400,000 employees across the globe (125,000 in North America) and operations in 33,400 sites in 82 countries, Sodexo is among the world’s top 25 employers, as a provider of integrated food services and facilities management. Betsy Silva Hernandez, Sodexo’s senior director for corporate diversity and inclusion, describes the corporate culture as high touch with an orientation toward action. It’s a high-touch culture, because the company is very relationship based and uses the power of influence to drive its diversity efforts. Its action orientation shows up as the company’s business leaders push for quick results, yet they also want the diversity strategy to be customized to their local context.

Silva Hernandez explains how the company’s decentralized structure is reflected in the structure of the diversity office. Depending on the location of a regional market (North America, Europe, Central or South America, and others), the company uses multiple infrastructure models. The decentralized model is further intensified by its French ownership, which brings its own inclusion issues. While the structure has evolved over time, the formal diversity effort began in 2002 with the creation of the company’s diversity leadership council. 

Along with the North American CEO, this council was charged with developing the diversity and inclusion strategy, setting priorities, and providing oversight for the effort. Later the strategy was broadened to include a committee of operational leaders comprised of members from the executive committee and market presidents. Their task was to implement the strategy and embed it throughout the organization by working with the company’s Cross Market Diversity Council (CMDC) and its employee business resource groups (EBRGs). The CMDC and EBRGs provide the grassroots support for inclusion initiatives. According to Silva Hernandez, this structure represents a top-down, middle-out, bottom-up approach to the inclusion strategy.

The efforts of Sodexo’s diversity and inclusion team on behalf of 125,000 North American employees, and influencing 270,000 other employees in locations around the world, are augmented by its EBRG members and other volunteers across the organization. Volunteer impact is monumental. For example, roughly 90 percent of Sodexo’s 25,000 North American managers participate in EBRGs. And the EBRGs are instrumental in how the company delivers its inclusion results. 

Volunteers may provide the much-needed resources to drive the inclusion efforts. However, as Sodexo’s Chief Diversity Officer Rohini Anand explains, the inclusion strategy is also based on the shared services model. The corporation provides and funds support services for the entire corporation, with local operations furnishing additional resources. Yet, even a company as committed to diversity as Sodexo has had to face the realities of a global economy. For two consecutive years, Silva Hernandez has seen the diversity budget cut, while responsibilities have increased. The Sodexo diversity office has had to deliver more with less money.

While Sodexo’s North American diversity strategy is only 10 years old, it is considered a mature, highly regarded function. Companies across the globe use Sodexo as the benchmark they aspire to reach. The company also illustrates the evolving nature of the diversity function.

Initially, Anand reported to the senior vice president of HR. Soon after, diversity was repositioned so that she reported to North American CEO George Chavel, and now she has a bifurcated reporting relationship to both the North American CEO and Global CEO Michel Landel. Although her area no longer reports directly to HR, Anand explains that both areas enjoy a strong partnership. “We’re separate, but we’re strong partners,” she says.

The diversity department has changed in the past and Anand understands that it could change again. “Diversity was a part of HR, then separated from HR, and depending on the needs of the organization, we would certainly recalibrate that relationship,” she said. “Obviously, our effort continues to be a work in progress."

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a global leader in healthcare, consumer products, pharmaceutical products, and medical devices. It’s a 125-year-old company with $65 billion in revenues. J&J’s Smita Pillai, director of global diversity and inclusion, medical devices and diagnostics, explains that J&J’s culture is best considered a hybrid between a lean culture at its headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J., and a more high-touch culture in its 250 operating companies that span 57 countries across the globe.

J&J’s structure also mirrors its hybrid culture, which is decentralized at the regional and local levels but supported by a more-centralized core strategy in its corporate offices. In this way, J&J’s global diversity and inclusion office has the best of both worlds. The central office establishes an overall strategy and provides some independent funding, while the local companies roll out the strategy and allocate funding from their budgets to support diversity initiatives.

According to Pillai, the company’s CDO reports directly to the CEO, and manages six director-level direct reports. With an annual budget of $5 million, the diversity function numbers about 16 employees, including directors and administrative assistants. Pillai said Johnson & Johnson can’t run a global diversity operation with the current structure at the corporate level, so the diversity function works in close partnership with HR and its teams.

While J&J’s office of diversity and inclusion has a well-deserved reputation, internally and externally, as an established leading-edge operation, Pillai recognizes that its structure may evolve as the company adapts to an ever-changing global landscape.

 

Rockwell Automation

With more than 20,000 employees, revenues of $6.2 billion and operations in 80 countries, Rockwell Automation is a business-to-business firm that is a leading provider of integrated systems for process manufacturing. According to Joan Buccigrossi, director of global inclusion and engagement, the diversity department was deliberately and strategically structured to serve as an inside consultant to the leaders and managers of the company. The responsibility for creating a culture of inclusion rests totally with the company’s leaders, not with HR.

With only two part-time staff members in the diversity office, Buccigrossi operates in a lean culture with a highly matrixed structure that leverages the power of influence across the organization. While she reports to the senior vice president of HR, Buccigrossi explains that her customers are the company’s business and function leaders, who initiate actions and develop the diversity direction. In this way, HR does not set the inclusion agenda or its engagement strategy. That’s done by Rockwell’s leaders and managers. “The danger of housing diversity in HR is that it can make the effort more of an initiative, something being done to leaders, rather than an effort they are intimately involved in,” Buccigrossi said.

“At Rockwell, leaders and managers are change agents.”

As in many firms, HR provides needed metrics, encourages tough conversations, and challenges and supports leaders and managers, Buccigrossi said. It is the department heads and their employees who fund the strategy and take ownership to ensure it succeeds. She cites an example with the North America sales division. The department decided that all managers and employees receive specialized education in order for everyone to become change agents. The department funded the effort and played a key role in the design and implementation of the learning modules. “The education is much more effective than any ‘training’ pushed out from HR would have been” she added.

While Buccigrossi’s diversity function does not have a budget, for real, the company’s functional leaders are prepared to support diversity initiatives from their funds. This arrangement works well for Rockwell. Everyone remembers 2008 and 2009, when the global and national economies were reeling from the fiscal freefall and companies were tightening their belts. In 2009, Rockwell’s diversity office was able to spend significant dollars on inclusion initiatives for employees. How? The business functions believed that such training was valuable and provided the necessary funding.

While Rockwell’s inclusion and engagement (I&E) department is tiny, in reality, the diversity and inclusion team consists of everyone in the company. According to Buccigrossi, all diversity and inclusion work is done by the people in the businesses and functional areas. They created Inclusion Change teams, which are tasked with performing cultural assessments, identifying barriers to inclusion, planning and executing actions to remove those barriers, and measuring results. Rockwell also uses rotational staffing assignments in I&E for up-and-coming and established leaders, although participants keep their day jobs. 

According to Buccigrossi, the consultant approach works well for Rockwell, because it blends in with the company’s culture and structure. This is how everyone works and business objectives are met. As a result, the consultant model reflects the current corporate environment and drives its inclusion strategy.

1. January 27th is School Nurse Day. Planning on flowers? Chocolates? Didn’t think so.

2. The most visits to emergency rooms occur during the warmer months of the year.

3. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Finland, Norway, Monaco, Ireland and Belarus have, in that order, the highest ratios of nurses per capita of all nations, ranging from 2162 to 1182 nurses per 100,000 people.

4. The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses was formed in 1908.

5. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, the number of psychiatric nurses in poor countries is about 0.1 per 100,000 persons.

6. In 1783 a black slave named James Derham worked as a nurse in New Orleans, eventually earning enough money to buy his freedom and move to Philadelphia, where he studied medicine and became a doctor.

7. Men and women between the ages of 25 and 44 account for 33 percent of all people in the U. S. who come to emergency rooms with injury-related wounds.

8. Linda Richards became the first nurse to earn a nursing diploma in the United States in 1873.

9. In 1846 the first hospital training school for nurses, the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses, was established in the town of Kaiserwerth, Germany.

10. The National Association of School Nurses recommends nurse-to-student ratios should be one to 750 for general populations, one to 250 in mainstreamed populations and 1 to 125 in severely handicapped populations.

11. According to a recent World Health Organization report, the United States spends more money, as a ratio of GNP, on health care than any country, followed closely by Lebanon and Zimbabwe.

12. “When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.” Terence, from The Woman of Andros (166 B.C.)

13. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 45% of nurses expressed fear of getting a potentially deadly disease as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

14. Nursing is one of the fastest growing occupations in the U.S.

15. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Nepal, Liberia, Central African Republic, Haiti and Bangladesh have, in that order, the lowest ratios of nurses per capita of all nations, ranging from 5 to 11 nurses per 100,000 people.

16. One out of every four registered nurses works part time.

17. The American Nurses Association, first known as the Nurses Associated Alumnae, was started in 1898.

18. The New England Hospital for Women and Children, established in 1862, was the first school for nursing in the U.S.

19. The order of the Brothers of Mercy was founded in 1538 by Juan Ciudad. (b. 1495. d. 1550.)

20. One out of every five licensed practical nurses works part time.

21. During the months that school is out, emergency room visits from children under 14 years old rise by 18 percent.

22. The demand for registered nurses is expected to rise 21 to 35 percent through the first decade of the 21st century.

23. “The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.” Homer, from The Odyssey (9th Century, B.C.).

24. There were 358 existing master’s of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 9% of all registered nurses.

25. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 59% of nurses expressed fear of getting a severe back injury as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

26. Around 500 A. D. the Benedictine nursing order was founded by Saint Benedict.

27. There were 75 existing doctorate of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 0.6% of all registered nurses.

28. There were 1,100 existing practical nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002.

29. The average annual earnings for registered nurses was $44,840 in 2000.

30. In 1996, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that one million workers are assaulted every year in the workplace and that “Most of these assaults occur in service settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, and social service agencies.”

31. In 1898 the British Army formed the Royal Army Medical Corp.

32. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Ireland, Seychelles, Maldives, Philippines and Azerbaijan have, in that order, the highest ratios of midwives per capita of all nations, ranging from 411.0 to 137.0 midwives per 100,000 people.

33. In 1947, Florence Blanchfield, a nurse, became the first female regular commissioned officer in the United States Army, assigned as the superintendent of the Army Nurse Corp. (b. 1882. d. 1971).

34. There are approximately 567,000 bicycle-related injuries each year that require emergency room attention.

35. 29 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to British medical personnel.

36. The United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) has been the main regulatory institution of nursing training and standards in the British since 1983.

37. “It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” Charles Dudley Warner, from “Fifth Study,” Backlog Studies (1873).

38. You know you are a nurse when you baste your Thanksgiving turkey with a Toomey syringe.

39. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, nurses and midwives can comprise between 50% to 90% of the number of health practitioners in many countries.

40. The American College of Nurse-Midwives was formed in 1955.

41. The National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accrediting body of nursing education programs of all types, oversees over 1,900 different programs.

42. “If you would live in health, be old early.” – a Spanish proverb.

43. Walt Whitman’s service as a nurse during the American Civil War inspired many of his poems, including Memoranda During the War (b. 1819 d. 1892).

44. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, the country of Nepal has the lowest ratio of nurses per capita in the world, with 5.0 per 100,000 people.

45. The first nursing school in history dates back to 250 B.C. and was located in India.

46. An associate’s degree in nursing (ADN) takes about 2 to 3 years to earn.

47. Clara Louise Maass is famous for serving as a contract nurse during the Spanish American War. (b. 1876 d. 1901).

48. The largest demand for licensed practical nurses through 2110 will be in nursing homes.

49. 17th century shipwreck survivor Juan de Mena is considered the first nurse in the New World.

50. The average starting wage for a certified registered nurse anesthetist is over $50,000.

Would you believe how many babies this 18th century midwife delivered successfully?  –>

51. According to a recent World Health Organization report, 93 member countries of the United Nations annually spend less than $100 per capita on health care, 56 member countries spend less than $500 per capita and 26 member countries spend over $1000 per capita.

52. The Teutonic Knights, the Knights of Lazarus and the Knights Hospitalers were all orders that organized male nurses to tend to sick and wounded.

53. Second Lieutenant Edward Lynn, in 1955, was the first male to be commissioned in the United States Army Nurse Corp.

54. Around nine million children visit emergency rooms in the U.S. each year due to injuries.

55. “To preserve a man alive in the midst of so many chances and hostilities, is as great a miracle as to create him.” Jeremy Taylor, from The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying (1651).

56. In October of 1902, Lina Rogers Struthers became the first school nurse in the United States.

57. The second week of May is National Nursing Home Week.

58. A bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN) takes about 4 to 5 years.

59. Lucretia Lester was a midwife for 34 years, between 1745 and 1779, and is reputed to have helped deliver 1,300 children, of which only two were lost.

60. The Knights Hospitalers was founded in 1119 to protect a hospital build in Jerusalem and also provided nursing care.

61. Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881. (b. 1821 d. 1912).

62. A 1996 survey done by the Department of Health and Human Services found that 95% of all working nurses are female.

63. The U.S. Army Nurse Corp was started in 1901.

64. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, open wounds are the leading diagnosis for injury-related visits to emergency rooms.

65. Why did the nurse keep the bedpan in the refrigerator? Because when she kept it in the freezer it took too much skin off.

66. There were about 700,000 jobs for licensed practical nurses in the year 2000.

67. According to a recent World Health Organization report, the United States, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Germany, respectively, annually spend the most money per capita on health care.

68. About three out of every five registered nurses work in hospitals.

69. The fourth week of May is National Nurses Week.

70. There are more nurses than any other workers in the health profession.

71. “When a man is ill his very goodness is sickly.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power (1888).

72. A 1996 survey done by the Department of Health and Human Services found that only 10% of working nurses represent minorities.

73. There were 86 existing diploma for nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 27% of all registered nurses.

74. You know you are a nurse when you think giving your patients TLC means giving them Thorazine, Lorazepam and Compazine.

75. The training time it takes to become a licensed practical nurse is about one year.

76. Traumatic wounds account for around 11 million visits to the emergency room each year.

77. The Canadian Victorian Order of Nurses was founded in 1897 in honor of Queen Victoria of England’s Diamond Jubilee.

78. Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War (b. 1818 d. 1882).

79. There were about 2,200,000 jobs for registered nurses in the year 2000.

80. If you see a nurse smiling when things go wrong, she is probably going off duty.

81. May 8th is National Student Nurses’ Day.

82. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, the number of psychiatric nurses in developed countries is about 33.5 per 100,000 persons.

83. The first week of May is National Hospital Week and Health Care Administrators’ Week.

84. In the various U.S. Military branches, approximately one-third of all nurses are male.

85. In 2000, there were 57,954 school nurses looking out for the health of 52 million students.

86. The Nurses Registration Act of 1919 established the first oversight of nursing training and standards in Great Britain.

87. There were 885 existing associate’s degrees for nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 32.0% of all registered nurses.

88. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, the United States has a ratio of 972 nurses per 100,000 people, or about the same as Germany and Uzbekistan.

89. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 51% of nurses said they worked an average of 41 to 60 hours per week.

90. Mary Seacole, a self-taught nurse, was famous for establishing a hotel for invalids close to the front during the Crimean War.

91. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, nurses said they spent 62% of their time in direct patient care.

92. Anne L. Austin was a famous historian of nursing (b. 1891 d. 1986).

93. Florence Nightingale, the most famous nurse in modern history, was only a nurse for three years of her life (b. 1820 d. 1910).

94. Saint Camillus de Lellis established a Catholic order called the Fathers of a Good Death in 1584 to tend to the terminally ill, and is also reputed to have designed the red cross on a white background symbol and to have developed the first ambulance (b. 1550 d. 1614).

95. The average annual earnings for licensed practical nurses was $29,440 in 2000.

96. Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African American nurse in 1879 (b. 1845 d. 1926).

97. There were 695 existing baccalaureate of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 31% of all registered nurses.

98. You know you are a nurse when you find yourself complimenting a complete stranger on his veins.

99. The demand for licensed practical nurses is expected to rise 10 to 20 percent through the first decade of the 21st century.

100. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 71% of nurses selected ‘acute/chronic effects of stress and overwork’ as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

101. You know you are in trouble when it’s your first night shift in three years and there’s a full moon.

Published on January 18, 2013 from UMKC Today

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing has received a $2.4 million federal grant to offer full scholarships to help diversify the nursing workforce.

The program will assist 240 students who are underrepresented in nursing — men as well as those with African-American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaskan native backgrounds. Current and new bachelor of science nursing students are eligible to receive scholarships of $10,000 per year over a four-year period. The scholarships are grants, not loans.

The minority nursing workforce hasn’t kept up with the U.S. population. Minorities made up 34 percent of the population in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  But the minority nursing workforce is only 16.8 percent; and 6.2 percent of nurses were men, according to a 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

Given the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projected need for more than 1 million new and replacement registered nurses by 2016, breaking the cultural divide is increasingly important.

“Creating a diverse nursing workforce is connected to the ability to provide quality patient care,” said Thad Wilson, associate dean for the School of Nursing, who teamed with social worker Eve McGee to apply for the grant.

The grant, awarded in October by the Health Resources and Services Administration, also will address the growing financial need students are experiencing during the challenging economy.

“I’ve seen students struggle to pay for the rent and gas,” McGee said. “The scholarships will allow students to truly focus on school.”

Preference for the scholarships is also given to those with an educationally disadvantaged background, including those for whom English is a second language, first-generation college students and those from a county in which less than 50 percent of the residents have an education beyond high school.

Students must maintain a 2.75 grade point average or above to retain the scholarship.

About the UMKC School of Nursing
The UMKC School of Nursing offers a full range of education programs including a four-year bachelor’s degree (BSN), an RN-BSN, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), a Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) and the Ph.D. in Nursing. Research at the UMKC School of Nursing is focused on Women’s and Children’s health and the school is a center of excellence in the provision of health care and education in these areas, emphasizing urban health care and wellness. For more information about the UMKC School of Nursing, visit http://nursing.umkc.edu/. You can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About the University of Missouri-Kansas City
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 15,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a four-part mission: life and health sciences; visual and performing arts; urban issues and education; and a vibrant learning and campus life experience. For more information about UMKC, visit http://www.umkc.edu/. You can also find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and watch us on YouTube.

By Brittney Edwards

Frontier Nursing University has been awarded a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) program. This four-year grant totals $1,350,000 and will provide scholarships to 90 students over the grant period.

The purpose of the SDS Program is to increase diversity in the health professions and nursing workforce by providing grants to eligible health professions and nursing schools for use in awarding scholarships to financially needy students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many of these students are from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds and will help diversify the health workforce. Because 100% of FNU graduates are trained in primary care, the FNU student body is a precise fit with the goals of the SDS program. Not only does Frontier recruit, educate and graduate advanced practice nurses and midwives to work in primary care, but our university targets students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and minority groups. With over 60% of FNU students fitting the educationally disadvantaged category and 20% qualifying as economically disadvantaged, FNU has a pool of students who can benefit greatly from this assistance.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer these scholarships to our students who might have had their graduate education goals postponed or unfulfilled because of financial constraints,” said Dr. Susan Stone, FNU President and Dean. “Our mission is to educate nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to serve women and families with a focus on rural and underserved areas, so the SDS grant is a perfect fit with our institutional goals.”

FNU will award 90 scholarships, valued at $15,000 each, over the four-year grant period. FNU tuition for the entire program, if attending full-time, ranges from $24,000 to $31,000. This low tuition will allow FNU to award nearly full scholarships for tuition with some funding for fees, books and reasonable living expenses. This funding will make the difference to students experiencing financial difficulties and allow them to complete their graduate education.

DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti recently interviewed Thomas F. Zenty III, CEO of the Cleveland-based hospital system. (University Hospitals is one of the 2012 DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems.) Zenty discussed the dramatic impact of the Affordable Care Act and how the hospital’s diversity efforts in the workplace and the community are helping it survive.

Zenty spoke on this topic at DiversityInc’s event last month, Diversity-Management Best Practices From the Best of the Best. Click here for video of his talk.

Luke Visconti: What is the intersection of solid diversity-management initiatives and the reduction of healthcare disparities?

Thomas F. Zenty III: Many studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between people of diverse backgrounds being willing to seek care and knowing that people who look like them will actually be providing that care. So the intersection between diversity and disparities is rather significant. We want to make certain that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure that people of color will be able to work in our organization, hold positions of leadership—caregivers, clinicians and support staff—in order to make people of all backgrounds, colors and faiths feel comfortable coming to University Hospitals to receive the world-class care that we provide.

Visconti: How is diversity and inclusion a competitive differentiator for a hospital?

Zenty: There is no better way to gain the pulse of what’s happening in the communities that we serve than by having people who live and work in those communities actively engaged with us at every level. From an employee perspective, it’s critically important that we have people of diverse backgrounds who will bring skills, talents, perspective in order to help us to do a better job as we look to achieve our mission. We think it’s critically important for diversity to be well represented across our entire health system at every level, be it gender, religion, race, color. In fact, we’ve recently reached out to the Amish community because one of our hospitals has a very large Amish population, and we realized that we did not have a member of our board who was of Amish descent. As a result, we added a new Amish board member to our hospital, and he’s brought a lot in terms of a better understanding of the Amish community and the healthcare needs of that community.

The point is we need to look into the community to better understand who are the communities that we serve? Who best represents those individuals within those communities that we serve? And how can we engage them at every level, either as employees, as members of the board, as leadership-council members? And we want to make sure that we’re engaging everyone in the communities that we serve.

Visconti: You’re very personally involved in the community. Why?

Zenty: It’s critically important for an organization of our size in a community of this size, as the second-largest private employer in Northeast Ohio, to make certain that we’re going to be focused on diversity at every level within the communities that we serve. Our organizational values include excellence, diversity, integrity, compassion and teamwork. And diversity is one of the key components of the cornerstones of the work that we do every day in taking care of our patients and meeting our mission. As the leader of this organization, it’s critically important for us to be actively engaged in community activities to make certain that we’re not only aware of what’s happening in the community, but play a leadership role in advocating on behalf of many different agenda items. One of the key ones, though, is in the area of diversity in Northeast Ohio.

Visconti: University Hospitals has a 100 on the Corporate Equality Index, the Human Rights Campaign’s index of equality for LGBT people. Why is that important to you?

Zenty: The LGBT community is very important to us for all the other reasons that I stated in all the other populations that we serve. They’re very much a part of our community. We want to make certain that they’re recognized and represented. They have actually recognized us for our work in this regard, which we’re very pleased about.

Visconti: Your chief diversity officer reports directly to you. You also have hands-on interaction with people who are responsible for delivering results in diversity management. How important are these two things?

Zenty: It’s critically important that the chief diversity officer reports to the chief executive officer. Donnie Perkins is our chief diversity officer and does an excellent job in the role. However, it’s also important to note that we have a very close working relationship with Elliott Kellman, who is our chief human resources officer, because so much of what we do in workforce planning and workforce development is structured around the importance of diversity at every level in our organization.

In our organization, we selected the top 24 people from within our health system to be part of an education-and-training program in conjunction with Case Western Reserve School of Business. We’ve engaged 13 physicians and 11 non-physicians who were at senior levels in our organization who we feel have the potential to grow and develop in the years to come within University Hospitals’ health system. They were selected on the basis of their accomplishment. They were selected on the basis of diversity. They were selected on the basis of their ability to grow and develop within our organization. It’s an 18-month program, but we’ve seen great success thus far. One of those individuals has already been promoted to a new senior position that was recently created in our organization.

But at the other end of the spectrum, we’re also concerned that we don’t have enough people of color in our management ranks. So we put together a mentorship program, which will include people at the senior administrative level who will choose people who have promotional capability within our organization, who will be working with each of us to make sure that they will be given the opportunity to grow and develop within our organization in both non-management as well as in management roles, so that we can encourage more people of color to get actively engaged as supervisors, managers, directors, vice presidents.

Visconti: How are you holding your senior team accountable for diversity-and-inclusion results?

Zenty: Our senior team is very actively engaged with Donnie’s leadership in making certain that we are focused on diversity at every level within our organization, looking at the healthcare needs of the people who we serve, making certain that our employees are given equal opportunity for promotion and growth within our health system, making certain that people who are in middle management have opportunities to grow into senior-management roles, and making certain that we are focused on doing everything that we can to prepare the next generation of leader who will be people of color and of diverse backgrounds. Likewise, it’s important to mention that our board has been focused on diversity over the past many years. And I’m pleased to report that the Council on Economic Inclusion has awarded us for two years in a row recognition for the diversity of our board. If we receive it a third year in a row, we’ll go into the Hall of Fame, and we’re hoping that that will be achieved. This actually starts at the top, beginning with our board, and then filters throughout our entire organization.

Visconti: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing University Hospitals? And how does diversity and inclusion factor into the solution?

Zenty: The greatest challenge will be how to address the changes that we’ll be facing under healthcare reform. One of the key things that we will focus on in the area of diversity is to make certain that the 32 million more Americans who will now have access to healthcare insurance that didn’t have it before, that they will be well represented both within the communities that we serve as well as well represented in the patient populations that we care for. We have a number of very strong specialty clinics that will focus on the needs of specific elements within our population. But we want to make certain that as we see this influx of new patients arriving, we clearly understand what their needs will be—which is more than just episodic acute-care needs, but the continuum of care of services that we’ll be able to provide to them in the years to come.

Visconti: I found University Hospitals’ website to be exemplary in its ability to communicate your mission, your values, how diversity ties into all of this, your corporate citizenship, your engagement with the community. Why is it so important to communicate this?

Zenty: University Hospitals really wants to be a leader in the area of diversity. We’ve been in existence since 1866. We’ve been a very active and vibrant part of this community for that same period of time. And we want to make certain that we’re going to be leaders in the area of diversity—to set the example, to set the tone toward diligently making great things happen in the world of diversity, and to make certain that we’re going to focus not only on the needs of our patients, but also on the needs of those within our organization, to make certain that everyone will be able to realize their fullest potential.