Reflections
I
felt comfortable from day one . This is what every student should feel when in school . However , not every student does and I can ’ t say it ’ s been a common experience for me either . I am not the type of student that is expected to succeed , not even in a women- driven workplace because of my ethnicity . Today , I am a proud woman who is an Hispanic nursing student , but I wasn ’ t always despite living in one of the most diverse states in the United States — New York . This story is not about me though , it ’ s about the importance of having diverse inclusive professors .
For this I will speak about my first and so far only Hispanic nursing school professor . It all started when I decided to join a committee at my nursing school and received an email from the nursing school Dean asking if I
Those Who Say They Understand and Those Who Show They Care By Emilia Salazar
would be interested in being part of the Teacher Evaluation Committee . I said yes and was placed in contact with the professor who would be in charge of this respective committee . His name was Dr . Solovay . The committee had four people , Dr . Solovay , two other nursing students , and myself . When we had our first meeting , he welcomed all of us and was grateful that we wanted to be part of this committee . Together we came up with great ideas on how to increase teacher evaluations in nursing school . But this was not all we discussed . This professor was different from a lot of professors we ’ ve had . Dr . Solovay would ask how we were doing and how our classes were going . His door was always open for us to visit , and he never appeared in a rush to end the meetings as I had experienced with other professors .
As I continued to serve as a member of the Teacher Evaluation Committee , I learned Dr . Solovay would be my future pediatric lab professor and public health professor . When he became my pediatric lab professor , it was a nice transition because I had seen firsthand the way he interacted with students that were not his own .
His way of teaching encouraged students who had not previously been an active voice to be vocal . A lot of professors put on a tough face because they think students will retaliate , but he is living proof that professors don ’ t have to come across as transactional to be respected and translational leaders are the ones that are needed .
Translational professors are not only compassionate , they present themselves as having a lot of patience , and wanting all of their students to be the best they can be . All of my previous nursing professors have been Caucasian or Asian , and sometimes it can be hard to believe that you too can be successful if you ’ ve never had a professor whose specialty you see yourself working in and who also looks like you . I ’ ve come across Latina nurses who I ’ ve come to admire , but I ’ ve never had a professor in nursing school who was a woman and Hispanic or Latina .
The irony here is that we live in a society that preaches diversity and inclusiveness , yet it is not seen as much as it should . We live in a society that continues to shame people for speaking more than one language and that shows we need to look at a specific way to be successful . We live in a society
42 NSNA IMPRINT n FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 n www . nsna . org