Minority Students' Perceptions Concerning the Presence of Minority Faculty: Inquiry and Discussion

Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health, Summer 2005 by Mills-Wisneski, Sharon M

To examine African American baccalaureate nursing students' (BSN) perceptions of the absence of minority nursing faculty in their nursing program. A descriptive design was used to examine a convenience sample (N =71) of African American junior (black, non-Hispanic) BSN students' perceptions of the importance of the absence of minority nursing faculty in both the classroom and clinical area. Descriptive statistics and a content analysis were used to examine the data. Fifty-one percent of the students (n=35) indicated that the absence of minority faculty was very important. Fifty-seven percent of the participants provided written explanations of their responses. Lack of role models, making the connection, perseverance, lack of representation in the university and discriminatory assumptions are the five themes that emerged from the students' written responses. The findings of this study provide preliminary evidence to support minority nursing students' views concerning the absence of minority nursing faculty and clinical instructors. These findings have implications for workforce and nursing education diversity, and by extension, for the delivery of culturally competent care.

KEY WORD: African American Baccalaureate Nursing Students; Minority Nursing Faculty; Minority students' Perceptions; Minority Students' Retention.

The absence of minority nursing faculty has been linked to increased diversity in the nursing workforce. Much has been written about the need to change and/or increase diversity in the curriculum. While the United States population is rapidly changing, there remains a lack of racial diversity in nursing (Barbee and Gibson, 2001), and, consequently, the nursing workforce is not reflective of this change. Childs, Jones, Nugent, and Cook (2004) wrote, that "the key to imparting a change in the workforce is dependent on the success of nursing education programs not only to recruit but also to retain and graduate a diverse population of students (p. 129)."

Minority faculty are a key to retention and change to the workforce. The presence of minority faculty provide an opportunity for minority nursing students to observe such faculty members in leadership roles, in the clinical area, and in other related university and community roles. African Americans are under-represented as nursing faculty (Godfrey, 2005) and minority students are aware of this under representation. The presence of minority faculty according to Campbell and Davis (1996) can make a difference for minority nursing students in "the development of security versus insecurity, feeling accepted versus estranged, feeling capable versus incompetent, and feeling superior versus inferior" (p. 300). The presence of a diverse faculty offers students a rich environment for role modeling and mentoring which is linked to retention. "A diverse faculty and student body increases the possibility of culturally competent nursing education" (DraytonHargrove, 1997, p. 239), which, in turn, affects the ability to provide culturally responsive healthcare to a diverse patient population.

Over the past decade, the nursing literature has addressed the issues of recruitment and retention of minority nursing students (Barbee & Gibson, 2001; Childs et al. 2004; Jones, 1992; Tucker-Alien & Long, 1999). Research also indicates minority nursing students are aware of the lack of minority faculty as well as the need for minority faculty in both the classroom and clinical area. Research examining minority nursing students' perceptions of the impact of the presence or lack of minority faculty is limited.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine African American junior baccalaureate nursing student's (BSN) perceptions of the impact of the absence of minority nursing faculty in their nursing program. This study stems from previous research pertaining to students' perceptions of their nursing program experiences that included minority nursing faculty. It was discovered that students were unable to respond to those questions pertaining to advisement, helpfulness, and support of minority faculty. This was due either to the lack of or limited access to minority faculty.

METHOD

A descriptive design was used to examine African American junior BSN students' perceptions of the importance of minority nursing faculty in both the classroom and clinical area. The response question consisted of a 5point Likert scale with a range of 1 = "not important" to 5 = "very important" for possible responses. Students were instructed to circle the number that best reflected their views. An open-ended question followed, to allow the students an opportunity to explain their rating.

SAMPLE AND SETTING

Data were collected from minority nursing students at nine private and state universities located in the North Atlantic and the Southern regions of the United States. The universities used in this study were randomly selected from universities with generic BSN programs in these regions. The convenience sample (N=71) consisted of 66 females and 5 males self-identified African American (black, non-Hispanic), baccalaureate junior nursing students, enrolled in generic BSN programs. The participants ranged in age from 19 to 44 years, with an M of 26 and a SD = 6.7. The majority (90.1%) attended a baccalaureate nursing program full-time, were single (never married) (71.8%), worked part-time (64.8%) and received some form of financial aid (97.2%). Table 1 provides a detailed description of the characteristics of the sample.