Empowering latino and american indian students to rename the world

This chapter will examine the concerns of Hispanic and American Indian (AI) nursing students as they progress through the upper division of a baccalaureate nursing curriculum while participating in a Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant program. Exploration of these diverse student experiences began with the production of a recruitment film, based on interviews with five nursing students and two practicing nurses. The film used Hispanic and AI proverbs as a naturalistic framework to present a narrative about their educational experiences. Using the film as a springboard, a subsequent mixed methods study chronicled Hispanic and AI student concerns and challenges. This chapter will present those concerns through case-oriented research methods and results, including semi-structured student interviews at entrance to the program and at the end of every semester; identification of 18 specific barriers to success; and comparisons of Hispanic and AI students with Anglo nursing students in terms of socioeconomic status, empowerment, and concerns about academic success. Variable-oriented research methods and results will be used to present student concerns in relation to the educational climate within the grant program, as compared to the educational climate in the college of nursing at large; and standardized questionnaires assessing the influence of grant services, including stipends, on student concerns. Both case- and variable-oriented methods will be used to present faculty content experts' validation of program evaluation questionnaires, which demonstrated a surprising lack of understanding of the concerns of diverse students. The two methods will be integrated at the level of analysis and interpretation to demonstrate the pressing need to empower Hispanic and American Indian students through improvements in educational atmosphere, tolerance, and cultural competency. Conclusions will point toward specific strategies for accomplishing empowerment, promoting recruitment, and improving retention through helping faculty see differently - to see and to attend to the crucial concerns of the diverse populations they serve.