Nursing workforce diversity: Promising educational practices.

BACKGROUND

Nursing workforce diversity is a national priority for providing culturally competent care and contributing to improved health equity. While nurses from underrepresented populations are increasing in the nursing workforce, the distribution of nurses in the United States is still not representative of the population.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to describe the current state of workforce diversity in Western states and identify promising practices from programs located in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oregon that are focused on improving nursing workforce diversity.

METHODS

Four innovative programs to address nursing workforce diversity are presented. Each project has unique situations and approaches to improving admission, retention, and graduation of students underrepresented in nursing. Similar approaches each project used include holistic admission review, academic and student support, financial support, and mentoring.

CONCLUSIONS

These projects contribute to knowledge development related to improving nursing workforce diversity for other colleges, universities, and states to consider. Improving nursing workforce diversity is a priority issue that could lead, through collective impact, to resolving health inequities nationally.