How are nursing programs meeting the needs of diverse studen

[Tracey Siegel]

In the US, the NLN is making diversity in nursing education a goal. Just tonight, I was viewing a video from Walden University (where I am pursuing my doctorate) and Dr. Talmadge Guy from University of Georgia was discussing his theory about multi-cultural education. He asked educator an excellent questions and one that I am going to ask my international friends- Do your students see themselves in your curriculum? If not, what do we need to do? This simple question really struck me. Despite all of our strides, most nurse educators are middle-aged white women (or at least what I see at more conferences) and this is definitely true in my program.
Are your students a reflection of you (or are you a reflection of them)? I don't think I realized how important this is until I had male students tell me that nursing questions are biased towards female students and that men use therapeutic communication differently. Just some musings! Tracey

[pkelley]

Hi Tracey,
I am glad to enter this forum, I am at an HBCU and while there is diversity there, I am sure that there is room for improvement. I would like to here from nurses who reside in other countries. Are they confronted with similar diversity issues. One problem I find at our school is the reluctance to change and a fear of losing control.

[nancyberger]

Hi Patricia,
We have quite a bit of diversity in my associate degree nursing program in central New Jersey. Our students are Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White and come from all over the world. Our nursing faculty, however, does not match this. They are predominantly White women, although we have one faculty member of Hispanic background and two of Asian background.

I find that it is very important to focus on the learning needs of our diverse students. I have had some academic colleagues who have not agreed with this. They believe that the students from other cultures must adapt to the environment in which they are presently learning.

We have many students for whom English is a second language. I give them a lot of credit, especially since they are not given any more time to take exams than anyone else. I have heard so many of them tell me how difficult this is because they read the question in English, translate it into their native tongue, answer the question (in their head) in their native tongue, and then translate it back into English. Since we give all students about 1 1/2 minutes/test question, this is very difficult for these ESL students, even though they are proficient enough in English to qualify for the program.