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Aid Latino Community to Attain Nursing Career Employment: ALCANCEBronwynne C. Evans, PhD, RN, Project Director
Maggie Perez, Recruitment and
Retention Coordinator Purpose: ALCANCE or "reach" in Spanish, aims to increase nursing workforce diversity in the rural, medically underserved Yakima Valley of Washington State by providing nursing education opportunities for minority individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. The project has created an educational pipeline for local American Indian and Hispanic/Latino potential nursing students from disadvantaged backgrounds that will culminate in graduation from the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing Baccalaureate Program consortium schools. Entry to the pipeline is through the Yakima School District Hispanic Academic Achievement Program (HAAP), the College of Nursing’s NARR for middle and high school students, and Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (YVFWC) where ancillary employees or community members interested in nursing careers can participate. Potential nursing students from area high schools and YVFWC who complete the Hispanic Health Care Broker class will provide accurate interpretive services for Spanish speaking clients while connecting with an entry-point to the educational pipeline for nursing. Access to the community Mentoring Program and, ultimately, to the Student Mentoring Program with advanced nursing students, provides early advisement about nursing, encouragement to further academic preparation in math, reading, and the sciences, and contact with successful minority role models. Stipends enable nursing students to concentrate on their course of study, and additional mentoring is available through the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and its local chapter and the Indian Nurses Association. The Retention and Recruitment Coordinator, Maggie Perez, is on-site in Yakima and provides regular, frequent contact for students of color and their families, while functioning as a visible presence in the American Indian and Hispanic/Latino community. Need: The U.S. Department of Health, in the Healthy People 2000 National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, recognized Hispanic/Latino/Latinos as a "special population" due to their unique needs. Hispanic/Latinos account for 40% of the total population of Yakima County and demonstrate the greatest numerical deficiency in health care professionals of all people of color in Washington State. More than 11,000 Spanish-speaking individuals in Yakima County lack any family member who can translate for them when seeking medical care (DOH, 1994). It is estimated that this group needs 231 physicians and 770 registered nurseswho know their clients' language and culture to provide appropriate health care. According to the Pew Report (1998, p. 26-27), "This is not a quota borne out of a sense of equity or distribution of justice, but a principle that the best health care is delivered by those that fully understand a cultural tradition". Without these providers, patient diagnosis, treatment, compliance, and satisfaction are compromised (Perez-Stable, M., Napoles-Springer, A., & Miramontes, J, 1996; Fortier & Shaw-Taylor, 1999, Carrasquillo, Orav, Brennan, & Burstin, 1999) Additionally, farmworkers, the poorest and most medically underserved of all groups (DHHS, 1993), depend heavily on providers who know their language and culture to gain access to quality care. However, there has been no significant increase over the last five years in minority enrollments or graduations from nursing schools. Nationally, 0.5% of nurses are American Indian and 1.6% of nurses are Hispanic/Latino. An increase in these numbers is essential if we are to successfully meet the health care challenges of these unique populations. Objectives:
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