UF College of Nursing attends national hearing to address diversity in the health-care workforce
University of Florida College of Nursing faculty participated in the first hearing of the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Health Professions Workforce, created to address disparities in health care by focusing attention on the number of underrepresented minorities among the nation’s health professions.
Findings from this hearing will inform the commission’s final report — to be released in 2004 — on bringing about systemic change at U.S. health professions schools and, ultimately, help eliminate unequal access to health services for minority groups.
The commission was organized by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., to study diversity in the U.S. medical, dental and nursing workforce. The UF College of Nursing was the only Florida school invited to the recent hearing, held at the Morehouse College of Medicine in Atlanta.
On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School, the hearing allowed commission members to hear testimony from educators, business leaders and community advocates on ways to increase the number of minorities in health professions.
A 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine called for increased diversity in the health professions as critical to reducing alarming racial health disparities. Racial and ethnic minorities make up about one-fourth of the nation’s population, yet they only comprise about 10 percent of the nation’s registered nurses, 6 percent of practicing physicians and 5 percent of practicing dentists.
Gloria McWhirter, M.S.N., R.N., a UF College of Nursing clinical assistant professor and the college’s adviser on recruitment, retention and mentoring of underrepresented minorities, attended the commission hearing and gave testimony on the college’s diversity initiatives. Among these are the college’s commitment to cultural competency among its faculty, clinical service in areas with a high proportion of minority patients, and successful pipeline programs that help move students from two of Florida’s historically black institutions into graduate nursing study, preparing them for leadership roles.
The UF/Bethune-Cookman College Nursing Consortium is a formal partnership that includes mentoring, career counseling and financial support for undergraduate students and alumni of the BCC Division of Nursing who want to pursue graduate studies. McWhirter spends time each week on the BCC campus.
The UF-led North Florida Cooperative Ph.D. Consortium is a partnership with several universities in North Florida, including Florida A&M University, a historically black institution. Through this partnership, which includes shared resources and distance delivery of Ph.D. courses, the college works to address the need for more black nurses with doctorates.
“We were pleased to have some of our programs and approaches highlighted at the hearing,” said Kathleen Ann Long, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., F.A.A.N., dean of the UF College of Nursing. “The college’s faculty members are committed to increasing diversity in our student body, and we have made progress.”
Among those attending the Atlanta hearing were administrators, faculty and students of colleges of medicine, nursing and dentistry from schools such as Morehouse College, Mercer University, Emory University, Medical College of Georgia and Kennesaw State.
The Sullivan Commission comprises 15 health, business, education and legal professionals, and other leaders. It is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and administered by the Duke University School of Medicine.