Minority Nurses’ Experiences on the Job


Jean Ann Seago, Joanne Spetz

Mar 2008

While a number of studies have explored questions regarding career path and job satisfaction among nurses, the data rarely are examined for distinct racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, we have not found any study that has explored the relationship between ethnicity and factors that foster job satisfaction among nurses. The purpose of this study is to describe the work environment, job advancement, and promotion experiences of registered nurses in California who self-identify an ethnic affiliation. We tried to determine if minority nurses faced more and/or different barriers to career advancement than white nurses. Overall, we found that minority nurses have positive views of their opportunities and workplaces. They are more likely than white nurses in the sample to agree that they have opportunities to learn new skills at work, to think their job duties match their skills, and to believe they have opportunities to advance at their workplace.