Dr. Vernell P. DeWitty, deputy director of the New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program, says that faculty and administrators need to “see diversity in the profession as an essential part of their mission.”
The shrinking nurse workforce coincides with the new reality that a greater number of the population is living longer, thereby increasing the need for health care providers. With urban and rural communities often lacking adequate health care, there is also a need for nurses who can effectively work with the country’s changing demographics. According to a fact sheet from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the U.S. Department of Labor projects the need for more than 1 million new and replacement registered nurses by the year 2020. Leaders in the profession are actively promoting access to programs that will develop a diverse nursing population to fill both clinical and faculty roles.
“It is critically important to increase the number of nurses entering the profession from diverse backgrounds,” says Dr. Nancy C. Tkacs, associate professor of nursing and assistant dean for diversity and cultural affairs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. “Patients feel greater confidence, trust and acceptance when they see nurses that resemble them in physical appearance and cultural characteristics.”
One approach to meeting that need is accelerated baccalaureate programs (B.S.N.). These accelerated programs, which take 11 to 18 months to complete, have existed for decades, but have only exploded in popularity in recent years. At the University of Pennsylvania, for example, the number of applicants has increased more than 94 percent in the past decade. Accelerated nursing programs are available in 43 states plus the District of Columbia and Guam. The programs are open to individuals who have already completed a bachelor’s degree in another field and fulfilled the requisite science courses.
Dr. Gail C. McCain, dean and professor at Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City, says they receive approximately 200 applications per year for the 30 available spots in the accelerated program. The minimum GPA for application is 3.25, but the applicants selected, who are virtually all people of color, have GPAs higher than 3.6. Hunter-Bellevue also has a higher percentage of men at 9 percent, versus the national average of men in the nursing field, which is around 6 percent.
“We know that, if we’re going to decrease health care disparities in this country, our nursing workforce has to reflect the U.S. population,” McCain says. “The accelerated program attracts people really diverse in terms of ethnicity, but also diverse in terms of background.”
McCain adds that these highly motivated adult learners also express interest in pursuing graduate level nursing studies and becoming nursing faculty.
