Hispanic nurses a growing force

Hispanic nurses a growing force
By Elizabeth Allen - Express-News, 07/22/2009

Norma Martinez Rogers took the helm of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses with the twin goals of increasing the number of Hispanic nurses to help with health disparities in that community and building the group's political clout.

Those two themes also dominate the group's annual conference, being held through Friday in San Antonio, where Martinez Rogers grew up.

Some speakers lined up to discuss practicalities such as asthma education among low-income Latinos — the topic of a group of professors and doctors based in Silver Spring, Md. Also on the agenda was testing a disaster-preparedness information card for Hispanics with limited language and literacy, developed by Josefina Lujan, an associate professor with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso.

Others studying how to best deploy bilingual nurses for Spanish-speaking patients discussed regional recruiting programs for Hispanic and minority nurses.

Having Hispanic nurses brings a health advantage to the Hispanic community, said Martinez Rogers, a professor with the University of Texas Health Science Center and director of Hispanic nurse mentoring programs.

“I think that it's more important to have the representation in the profession, because many of us speak the language, understand the culture,” she said. “Just not Latinos, but self-identifying as Latinos.”

She added, “We are teaching our people to not be afraid to say who you are. Never forget your roots, ever.”

That personal sense of identity, Martinez Rogers finds, feeds naturally into her goal of building the organization.

“I would like for them to learn how to have a voice,” she said. “I often say, ‘No tengan vergüenza — don't be embarrassed.'”

The association is pursuing more chapters and adding members, and this conference — with about 400 people attending and 92 vendors — is the largest the 33-year-old organization has had. Martinez Rogers said a focus on training new presidents in political activism would strengthen it further.

“Latinos are not accustomed to asking for help, asking for money, just asking,” she said. While some may view speaking out as bragging, she said, it is setting an example for others:

“You'll plant a seed and that person will think, ‘I can do that, too.'”