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University of Maryland School of Nursing Joins Maryland Alliance to Achieve Greater Diversity Among Health Care Professionals

May 7, 2010

Baltimore, Md. – The University of Maryland School of Nursing joined nine other Maryland academic health institutions and historically black colleges on May 5 in signing a memorandum of understanding officially launching the Maryland Alliance to Transform the Health Professions. The Maryland Alliance—a spin-off of the Sullivan Alliance to Transform America’s Health Professions—aims to address the state’s growing need for a larger and more ethnically representative health care workforce and to provide a working model for other states also committed to expansion and diversification.

Over the past 25 years, the nation’s health care workforce has not kept pace with the increasing size and diversity of its population, which has contributed to disparities of health status and access to care among certain under-represented groups. The goal of the Sullivan Alliance is to transform the health professions so as to help eliminate gaps in health status and expand access to care.

“Thirty-seven percent (653) of our current student enrollment consists of under-represented minorities, and 12 percent are men,” says Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing. “As a member of this partnership, we are committed to increasing still further the diversity of our student population, which will in turn enhance the diversity of Maryland’s nurses and thereby improve the extent and quality of the care we provide to all our residents.”

The other Maryland schools in the Alliance are Bowie State University; Coppin State University; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Morgan State University; University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health; University of Maryland Eastern Shore; University of Maryland School of Medicine; University of Maryland School of Pharmacy; and University of Maryland Dental School. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is also a member of the partnership.