Providing nursing care to the increasingly diverse population of the United States is a challenge for the nursing profession. These populations differ racially, culturally, and linguistically from the majority of practicing professionals and enrolled students who are primarily white mono-linguistic, North American women. While students of color enroll in nursing preparatory programs, they have high attrition and low graduation rates. This dissertation sought to explicate nursing faculty perceptions towards the teaching of nursing students of color, and the effect of these perceptions on the educational outcomes of these students of color.

Extensive research has focused on student of color characteristics and the experiences of students within nursing programs. These studies have explicated economic constraints, educational deficiencies and support requirements, and family and relationship requirements. Other studies have indicated that students of color feel that nursing faculty have preexisting stereotypes, engage in ineffective communication, and have differing understanding of events and their significance than do nursing students of color. A literature search yielded few studies that addressed nursing faculty perceptions, experiences, and beliefs, towards nursing students of color.

Employing the Giorgi phenomenological method of investigation, four nursing faculty were interviewed as to their teaching experiences with students of color. These interviews revealed that teaching experiences were characterized by three major themes: sentinelship, mentoring, and zealotism.

Sentinelship is characterized by faculty obligation, English language proficiency, differences in contextual and semantic word and phrase meaning, dress and comportment, and preexisting beliefs towards cognitive abilities. Mentoring is characterized by language differences and preexisting stereotypes towards cultures and student behavior. Zealotism is characterized by emotional ferventcy, and fanatical commitment supporting either students of color or equal treatment of all students.

This study demonstrates that the perception, expectations, and beliefs of nursing faculty towards cultural, linguistic, and racial attributes of students affect the curricular environment experienced by students of color. Significant implications and relevance for nursing education and research are explored.