The need for more Spanish-speaking nurses has risen across the valley, so are Arizona schools admitting more Spanish-speakers into the health professional program to fill the need?
Director of student services at the ASU college of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, Cheryl Herrera, does see the need in Arizona for bi-lingual healthcare professionals.
Out of 480 student applicants, only 180 hopefuls were admitted into the Arizona State University nursing program last year.
“Although we would like to see more minorities such as Hispanics admitted into the program, overall we have a larger pool of white/Caucasian students applying for the nursing program and therefore a larger percentage of white/Caucasian students are admitted into the program,” said Herrera.
“It is a benefit to have students know another language such as Spanish, it’s not however a requirement of our major, because we require national accreditation and certain courses and hours in clinical are necessary, so it is difficult to fit in a language requirement,” said Herrera.
Herrera said that although demographics are not on the application, all of the students meet with an academic advisor before the application process for upper division nursing is completed, and the advisors put their racial/ethnic information in the database.
“The only thing we use their racial/ethnic information for is certain federal scholarships. It is not part of the application process,” said Herrera.
Ashley Lindemann, a junior who was recently admitted in the ASU nursing program, finds the nursing school to be highly competitive.
“There is no part that asks your demographic. The application for the school just consists of grades in all pre-requisite classes (13 out of 14 must be completed), your immunization record, proof of application for a fingerprint card and a negative Tuberculosis skin test. We also have to take an assessment that includes a short essay, a reading comprehension and math section. The GPA requirement is minimum of 2.75, but it is highly recommended that people who apply have a much higher GPA as the program is very competitive,” said Lindemann.
“I think the real reason that there are so many white students in the nursing program is just because there is a higher general population at ASU to begin with and not because the nursing school is accepting minorities differently,” said Lindemann.
Minorities have often been few in the medical field in the past, but we see that trend shifting now.
“It really depends on where in the country you are,” said Kathy Harty, ASU nurse practitioner. “In general there are more foreign-born physicians in the U.S. There has been a lot of progress in the last 25 years where more minorities are included into medical schools and into the medical field, it has definitely improved.”
According to Herrera, ASU in general has been increasing their attempts at recruiting more minorities, which has helped other majors have more of a diverse student population, but the nursing school has not done a lot of research on diversity and demographics in their particular school.
“We do realize there is a need for more Spanish-speaking health care professionals, and anyone who speaks Spanish would be helpful, they don’t necessarily have to be Hispanic, or a minority,” said Herrera.
Reach the reporter at jessy.albaz@asu.edu.
