Latinos, the nation’s largest minority group, comprise 17 percent of the United States population. And that number continues to rise steadily. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050 nearly one-third of the nation’s population will be Latino.
But Latinos are woefully underrepresented in many professions, particularly in healthcare. Fewer than five percent of registered nurses are Latino, according to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In contrast, 8.3 percent of registered nurses are Asian Americans and about 10 percent are African-Americans.
The nursing profession certainly has made significant strides in attracting “non-traditional” hires in recent decades. Nearly 10 percent of registered nurses are male, and representation of several minority groups continues to climb because more people realize that a bachelor’s or advanced degree in nursing is a ticket into the middle, or perhaps even the upper-middle, class.
But the growth of Latinos in nursing has been slow. READ MORE AT DHEALTHCARE
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