Document Type

Report

Publication Date

3-2007

Keywords

Hispanic nurse gap, second language, second language skills, bilingual nursing population

Abstract

In 2004, researchers at the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas prepared a report that detailed the projected shortage of minority nurses in the four county region of Northwest Arkansas. The study focused particularly on the Hispanic residents of Northwest Arkansas, as projections showed the estimated proportion of the total population for that ethnicity increasing from 9.5 percent in 2005 to 16.0 percent in 2025. A separate set of projections in the report estimated that the proportion of the nursing workforce with Hispanic ethnicity would increase from 2.1 to 3.9 percent over the same time period. The report concluded that over the 20 year period, there would be an ever-increasing Hispanic representation disparity in the Northwest Arkansas nursing labor force.

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