UMass Boston program 'Clinical Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing' aims to increase nurses of color
BOSTON - On any given day you will find Cintia Barbosa at one of Mass General Brigham's affiliated hospitals. The nurse case manager has worked there for nearly a decade and is the product of the "Clinical Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing."
The program, under UMass Boston, is returning this year in a big way. The university, and Mass General Brigham are equally splitting a $20 million each investment to help support roughly 400 students over the next five years. The goal is to increase the number of nurses of color in Mass General Brigham hospitals.
"When patients walk into Spaulding or MGB, they feel like they belong," said Barbosa. "Every single week that I am here, I definitely will connect with a patient and speak whether it's in Spanish or Portuguese. Being able to connect with them in a different language is just so valuable."
UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said the program has helped 130 nursing students so far. This investment will shatter those numbers. "I want us to get to the day when the nurses and the patients look like one another," said Suárez-Orozco. "Right now, that is not the case."
"This is really a win, win," said Suárez-Orozco "Coming together for the good of our citizens, the good of the Commonwealth. We need more nurses, we need more technologically, more scientifically, savvy nurses who are culturally able to connect with and serve our amazingly diverse population in the city of Boston."
Dr. Gaurdia Banister is executive director for the Institute for Patient Care at MGH and a co-project director of the Clinical Leadership Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing. Banister pointed out that patients with medical teams that look like them often lead to increased trust and transparency and ultimately better care.
"It has been amazing for our patients," said Banister. "They are going to receive safe care anyway, but seeing someone that looks and sounds like themselves is incredibly important. It feels like a little pebble that we are putting in water and you see those little rings that go outward, and I feel like that is what this program will do and can do for the future."