Public nursing leadership in eliminating ethnic health disparities

The awareness of racial and ethnic health disparities has increased in the United States resulting in national attention and the call for strategies for elimination. Increasing cultural competency is shown to improve quality of care among ethnic minority groups. Empirical studies indicate the ethnic background of the health provider is a proven success factor in lowering the barrier to health care services for ethnic minorities. Nurses in the community setting assume leadership roles to eliminate disparities in the health status of racial and ethnic minority populations. Nurses with a particular ethnic background not only provide nursing services at their work place, but also devote themselves to improve access to health care for the same racial population. However, resources are lacking for nurses to assume responsibility in alleviating barriers to access to health care. In addition, there is also a limited channel to communicate with the community. The purposes of this study are as follows: (1) to demonstrate how nurses with an identified ethnic background actually take on leadership roles to improve access to health care for the same ethnic community; and (2) to identify the challenges that nurses with an ethnic background are facing in initiating the commitment to eliminate inequities in health care for the same ethnic group by observing the Korean Nursing Association in Houston. It will provide a platform to suggest the potential issues for future research.