Among the many changes happening at Tarleton State University is a new grant aimed at increasing diversity in the nursing department. Dr. Elaine Evans, a nursing professor, was a proponent of the grant.

“This grant is very worthwhile to me and I’m so excited for it.” Evans said.

The goal of the grant is to allow the nursing program to put into effect new means of recruitment that will draw in and better retain the number of African American and Hispanic students pursuing nursing majors.

The grant itself is worth $149,531 that will go toward assisting African American and Hispanic students in furthering their education through the Tarleton Nursing Program. The grant will fund a program called “I Belong” which will assist these students in three areas of their degree plan: first year experience courses, during the semester when students may be required to take pre-admission nursing courses, and through the student’s first semester following official nursing program admission.

In 2013, only 16.3 percent of nursing majors were African American or Hispanic. The retention rates for those students were 70 percent among African Americans, 74 percent among Hispanics and 79 among White-Non Hispanic individuals.

“A culturally diverse nursing workforce able to provide quality, culturally and linguistically competent patient care has emerged as a national strategy to address health disparities among minorities,” Evans said.

The need to meet the demands for a nursing program that better assists the population it serves has been acknowledged by the MRRI. Others assisting in the grant project include Dr. Dokagari Woods, Alicia Figuero and Carolyn Zapata. The grant project itself has a research data component that is still awaiting approval by the Institutional Review Board before it can be implemented.