News & Events

Closing the Divide

As professional nurses and the largest group of health providers, we should be unwilling to allow the U.S. to settle for less than the complete elimination of health disparities.

The UIC Urban Health Program (UHP) improves the quality of health care services for medically underserved urban populations by expanding health profession education opportunities for underrepresented groups and others interested in serving in health professions shortage areas of Illinois.

“As professional nurses and the largest group of health providers,” said UHP director Dr. Connie Dallas in the fall UHP newsletter, “we should be unwilling to allow the U.S. to settle for less than the complete elimination of health disparities. …There is growing evidence that health providers who share the same race/ethnicity as their patients may be more adept at providing culturally competent health care and increasing patients’ overall satisfaction with their health care in comparison with providers who do not.”

In 2005, the CON Urban Health Program served nearly 40 self-identified African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American undergraduate and graduate students. The program offers a mixture of leadership, networking, and mentoring activities, as well as workshops that support students in topics including time management, test-taking skills, and resume writing.

Internal and external scholarships – including the Marguerite A. Dixon Scholarship for graduate students, and the Eva Smith Scholarship for undergraduates – give priority to minority students. The UHP office also has an extensive file of recommended scholarships for minority students.

Why would a student want to join the Urban Health Program? “It helps you get through your academic career,” described Kelly Pennington, graduate assistant in Nursing’s UHP, and a UHP doctoral student in the College of Applied Health Sciences. “You know where you can go if you need help or need resources. You don’t feel so alone. They have activities and workshops where students can meet each other.”

Program Coordinator Dawn Carter joined the College in the fall of 2004 and has increased the number of organized activities, streamlining communication and linking current students with resources, and heightening awareness among high school minority students about the program and the nursing field.

“UIC is very competitive for applicants,” Carter explained. “Some students think they could never get into UIC, but that’s the point of getting knowledge ahead of time – so they know what they have to do if they really want to come to UIC to get their BSN.

“High School students should know we are here to meet with them, to talk about their interests, introduce them to faculty in the College, and give them tips about what they should do while they are still in high school to prepare them for a nursing education. When students need to know what they need to do up front, it’s a lot easier to get to where they want to be.”