Exercise
studied for MS
Fisher
to look at concept of exercise as treatment for fatigue
By
LOIS BAKER
Contributing Editor
Look around
any hospital, clinic or doctor's office and most of the nurses you see
will not be people of color.
|
"The
majority of nurses are still of white European ancestry, but their
patients come from many cultures. In the long term, we need to
bring more people from diverse cultures into the profession."
—NANCY
CAMPBELL-HEIDER
|
This situation
does not bode well for the future of nursing or for health care, as
the general population becomes more diverse and the need for multicultural
understanding more crucial.
Providing
that understanding is the goal of a new curriculum in the master's-degree
program for family nurse practitioners in the School of Nursing. The
new curriculum will focus on the health beliefs and attitudes of other
cultures, both in the classroom and in the field. A second major thrust
is recruiting and retaining students from minority and underserved populations.
If the
three-year effort is successful, UB's cultural-competency curriculum
and field experiences may serve as a model for nursing schools around
the country, says Nancy Campbell-Heider, professor of nursing and project
director. The project is being funded by a $1.3 million grant from the
federal Bureau of Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration.
"The majority
of nurses are still of white European ancestry," says Campbell-Heider,
"but their patients come from many cultures. If they are going to provide
the best possible care, they need to know how other cultures understand
and interpret illness and disease. And in the long term, we need to
bring more people from diverse cultures into the profession.
"Meanwhile,
until we succeed in our mission of creating a culturally diverse nursing
work force, improving the cultural knowledge and sensitivity of our
current students will help bridge the cultural divide."
Campbell-Heider
and colleagues aim to accomplish five objectives:
- Prepare
all family nurse practitioner graduates in cultural competency
- Increase
the number of family nurse practitioners working in underserved areas
by 10 percent
- Increase
the number of students from minority and underserved groups enrolled
in the nursing school by 10 percent
- Improve
adolescent self-care skills, attitudes and behavior, and increase
nurses' teaching competency
- Create
a positive image of nursing in the community
All students
in the program will study cultural differences and identify false thinking
about cultural stereotypes, and spend nearly 600 hours working in clinics
in culturally diverse and underserved areas.
Campbell-Heider
notes that placing nursing students in underserved areas provides positive
role models for recruiting minority nursing students, in addition to
giving them first-hand experience working with different cultures.
One aspect
of the grant specifically targets adolescent health. Family nurse practitioner
students will teach ninth graders in schools with a mix of cultures
about high-risk health behaviors. This fieldwork is designed to increase
students' and parents' knowledge about risky behaviors while helping
students learn to teach in community-based settings, says Campbell-Heider.
Another
component involves producing educational health programs for broadcast
over the Western New York Distance Learning Fiber Optic Network. This
system connects most area public schools with UB's videoconferencing
center developed by the School of Nursing and the Millard Fillmore College
Continuing Education Division.
