elmsnews

ELMS DNP GRAD JAINES ANDRADES TESTIFIES TO U.S. SENATE COMMITEE ON NEED FOR HEALTHCARE DIVERSITY

Jaines Andrades BSN ’14, DNP ’20, testified recently before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about ways the federal government needs to address the growing problem of too few minorities choosing careers in healthcare.

Andrades spoke May 2, 2024, in Washington, D.C., during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, chaired by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Also testifying was Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, who spoke of how a lack of representation in the number of doctors and nurses can cause distrust among minority populations toward the entire healthcare system.

Andrades, a Springfield native who now works as a trauma surgery nurse practitioner at Baystate Medical Center, said Congress needs to do more to address the cost of education, which is the biggest barrier to minority students and those from low-income families finding careers in healthcare.

“Helping fund the education of minority students interested in becoming professional healthcare providers is a wise investment,” Andrades said. “It connects people with practical careers which would allow them economic stability to support themselves and their families.”

She was introduced to the committee by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, who spoke of how she has dedicated her career to helping vulnerable populations, beginning with her first days as a registered nurse at the Hampden County House of Correction and later at the Baystate Mason Square Neighborhood Clinic.

“Her commitment to being a voice for the disenfranchised has allowed her to be a change agent and a role model for others,” Cassidy said.

Andrades spoke of her experiences as the child of a single mother who had no means to send her to college. What her mother did give her, she said, was a strong work ethic.

While a student at Elms College, Andrades worked at Baystate as a janitor cleaning the same procedure and surgical rooms that she now uses to treat patients. Her colleagues at the hospital helped point her toward different scholarship and interest-free loan programs that helped her with her tuition. Without that help, she would not have known the programs existed.

Andrades supports Congress providing more funding available for grants and low-interest student loans, and making tuition free at community colleges. She also spoke of the government backing employer-based programs, like Baystate’s “Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership,” which helps connect Springfield students with people employed in different areas of healthcare. All of these could make healthcare careers an appealing option for minorities and those from low-income homes.

She said to increase diversity in healthcare, there needs to be a robust system of college and career planning in place, and it needs to be promoted heavily to let those who could benefit know about it.

“Making students at all schools, most especially those in lower-income areas, aware of healthcare as an obtainable career opportunity would go so far in letting the students know it is within their reach,” she said.

It is also critically important to promote “that there are resources available to them to embark on their journey to higher education.”

She spoke of how when she was attending the Roger L. Putnam Vocational High School in Springfield, she had a dream of becoming a lawyer but had no idea of how to make it come true. Instead, she was enrolled in the school’s cosmetology program. 

She never considered a career in health care until a chance meeting with a nurse during a routine medical visit with her mother while in high school. While talking, the nurse told Andrades she should consider going into nursing.

After graduating from Elms College in 2014, she worked as a registered nurse at the health clinic in Mason Square. It was there that colleagues encouraged her to become a nurse practitioner, and she returned to Elms College to earn her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in 2020. 

Read the article on C-SPAN