Start out: building healthcare careers for minority teenagers.
BACKGROUND
The healthcare industry is currently experiencing a severe shortage of nurses and other allied healthcare professionals. To compound this crisis, the current workforce does not mirror the growing linguistic and cultural diversity of the population needing health care. This article describes a community partnership approach to creating educational and career opportunities in nursing and other health sciences for young, multicultural, bilingual teenagers.


METHODS
Several community organizations joined together to design and implement an 8-week summer program entitled "Start Out," which served to integrate life planning, mentorship, nursing assistant training, and college application assistance while providing summer salary stipends and work scholarship opportunities. Twenty-seven students participated in the program.


RESULTS
Twenty-four bilingual, economically disadvantaged teenagers 16 to 19 years old, from the greater Seattle metropolitan area, completed the first session of this innovative program and passed the certified nursing assistant examination.


CONCLUSIONS
Culturally focused assistance programs may provide an avenue to meet the current nursing shortage and provide healthcare workers who can be sensitive to the cultural and linguistic needs of the growing ethnic population.
Yates
Susan Hunter
SH
University of Washington School of Nursing, Seattle, Washington 98195-7260, USA.
Bline
Kerri
K
Bird
Chelsea
C
Bresnahan
Erin
E
Couper-Noles
Rebekah
R
Cutler
Sarah
S
Henderson
Susanne
S
Hymel
Erin
E
Salsman
Tracie
T
Tonellato
Malia
M
Steele
Annie
A
Lindenberg
Cathy Strachan
CS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D003256:Community Participation; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups; D009729:Nursing; D016730:Program Development; D014146:Training Support; D014861:Washington; D000078329:Workforce