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“Too Much Talk and Not Enough Action”--A Reader Responds

In the Winter 2003 issue of Minority Nurse, our Editor’s Notebook editorial, “Too Much Talk and Not Enough Action,” expressed the opinion that it’s time for the nation’s health professionals to move beyond collecting data on minority health disparities and focus more aggressively on creating solutions based on the substantial information they already have. In response, we received this letter from Daisy Rodriguez, RN, MN, MPA, a board member of the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA):

“Your editorial simply drove the point straight home: It is time that we talk about SOLUTIONS to health disparities among ethnic minorities,” she writes. “I agree that we already have enough data to prove the point [that disparities exist]. It is time for us to take action rather than simply looking at figures in the abstract.

“In March 2002, I attended a two-day seminar on ‘Uniting Resources to Address Health Disparities’ at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Md., as one of the representatives from the PNAA. This workshop was sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing’s Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (CHPR), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) and the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations (NCEMNA).

“There was an impressive list of participants, including NINR Director Dr. Patricia Grady, NCMHD Director Dr. John Ruffin, and Dr. Betty Smith Williams, NCEMNA president. Under Dr. Williams’ leadership, NCEMNA has established goals that include development of ethnic minority nurse leaders in the areas of health policy, practice, education and research; advocacy for culturally competent, accessible and affordable health care; and education of consumers, health care professionals and policy makers about health issues affecting minority populations.

“The seminar generated a wealth of ideas from the different workgroups, which included many of the best minds in the health care profession,” Rodriguez continues. “The work we accomplished is worth a follow-up. Certainly that was a great beginning and I was honored to have been part of it. But ideas on paper will not spring alive unless they are translated into action. Now that we have developed the blueprint, it is time to start turning it into reality.

“How about starting with increasing the federal budget for minority health? Considering that the minority population is growing and rapidly overtaking the majority white population, expenditures on minority health care are disproportionately low. With more funding, the rest will follow.”