The National Association of Hispanic Nurses launched a Mentorship Academy in July 2011 to maintain a formal peer-driven process to help advance Hispanic nurses' educations and careers.
The academy pairs novice nurses with experienced mentors, said Vivian Torres-Suarez, RN, BSN, MBA, director and founder of the Mentorship Academy. "They work together for a year on goals and objectives set by the novice and on achieving tasks related to advancing their career and/or their education," she said.
Torres-Suarez said the Institute of Medicine's report, "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," and findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses by the Health Resources and Services Administration were motivators in creating the academy and added her participation in the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship program made the academy possible.
"The NSSRN states that Hispanics comprise 15.4% of our society while Hispanic nurses represent only 3.6% of the 3 million nurses in the United States, remaining underrepresented in the RN population compared to their profile in the general population," she said. "In addition, Hispanic nurses along with Asian nurses are more likely to have pursued a bachelor's degree for initial RN education but less likely to have pursued graduate degrees than were white, non-Hispanic RNs. Not only are more Hispanic nurses needed, but more Hispanic nurses are needed in education and administration, as well." READ MORE
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