Professional development in nursing research--a culturally diverse postdoctoral experience

Given the current shift from culturally-sensitive to culturally-competent healthcare, preparing culturally diverse nurse-scientists beyond the doctorate is crucial to the ability to better understand the healthcare of diverse client populations. The probability of ethnic-minority postdoctoral fellows having mentors of the same race is low. This article describes key issues to consider for culturally integrated professional development experiences between ethnic-minority postdoctoral nursing research fellows and White, non-Hispanic nurse-scientists. The discussion delineates three characteristics that describe a scientific community: communality, colleagueship, and constructive competition. Conclusions are that four factors are critical to ensuring the survival and success of ethnic-minority researchers: instruction, affiliation and mentoring, sustaining ethnic-minority researchers' contributions, and expanding the number of ethnic-minority researchers.