Nationwide about 12 percent of the working nurses are African Americans. But data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing shows that the Black percentage of students in bachelor’s degree programs is declining. In 2007, Blacks made up 11.8 percent of all students in bachelor’s degree programs in nursing. By 2016, African Americans were just 9.7 percent of all students in these programs.
The good news is that the number and percentage of African Americans in graduate nursing programs has increased significantly in the same time period. For master’s degree programs in nursing, there were 6.436 African americans enrolled in 2007. They made up 11.8 percent of total enrollments in master’s degree programs in nursing. By 2016, there were 17,145 African Americans enrolled in master’s degree programs in nursing and they made up 14.7 percent of the total
In nursing doctoral degree programs, the number of Black students increased from 357 in 2007 to 700 in 2016. The Black percentage of all nursing doctoral students increased from 10.2 percent to 16.5 percent.
