New Titles from the National League for Nursing

Asian American Voices: Engaging, Empowering, Enabling Is First in Series Aimed at Promoting Diversity in Nursing and Nursing Education

Publications Available Through the Web-Based NLN Marketplace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY — April 27, 2009 — Several new books have been recently published by the National League for Nursing, among them Asian American Voices: Engaging, Empowering, Enabling, the first of a series that aims to promote diversity in nursing and nursing education. African American Voices and Hispanic Voices are due out later this year and in 2010, respectively. Diversity is a key theme in the NLNs statement of core values, reflecting NLN and other research studies that document the improvement of health outcomes when cultural, ethnic, and gender gaps between patient and caregivers are narrowed or eliminated.

Lin Zhan, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor of nursing at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, has edited this groundbreaking volume, organized into 11 chapters that were contributed by a distinguished line-up of Asian-American scholars. Asian American Voices covers varied topics that reflect the scholars experience teaching and working within this complex, multicultural community and their determination to empower Asian American nursing students within the context of higher education.

"The NLNs commitment to promoting diversity in nursing and nursing education goes beyond one of tolerance to a celebration of differences that enrich the scope of the clinical and academic landscape," said NLN CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN. "We are, therefore, so proud to publish Asian American Voices and look forward to future volumes in the series."

As Michelle Kalis, PhD, provost/vice president for academic affairs at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences noted in her review, "Dr. Zhans Asian American Voices offers in-depth analysis of Asian Americans experiences in higher education across multiple subsets within the broad category of Asian Americans…The book is a timely resource for faculty and administrators from multiple disciplines who are striving to achieve diversity in higher education and to provide learning environments that stimulate all students to grow and develop intellectually, culturally, and socially."

The first chapter, "Culture, Health, and Nursing Education by Dr. Zhan, offers an overview of Asian cultures and Asian Americans experiences in health care, based on her own research and viewpoints of her students.

Dr. Zhan also collaborated with her undergraduate and graduate students to conduct a qualitative study exploring learning experiences of Asian American nursing students in one urban public university, whose results she reports in Chapter 5: "Diversity Research Initiatives: Reflections and Thoughts." The project took place at the University of Massachusetts-Boston as part of a university-wide Diversity Research Initiative funded by the Ford Foundation.

Additional chapters in Asian American Voices certain to intrigue readers are:

• A Critical Analysis of the Exclusion of Asian American from Higher Education Research and Discourse
• Mentoring Asian Students toward Entering the Health Professions
• Chinese American Children, Families, and Special Education
• Bridging the Broken Narrative: How Student-Centered Teaching Contributes to Healing the Wounds of Trauma
• Community Cultural Development and Education with Cambodian American Youth
• Ca Tri Nho: Roles of Vietnamese American Studies and Education Post-Katrina

Other new titles available soon include Achieving Excellence in Nursing Education, edited by Marsha H. Adams, DSN, RN, CNE and Theresa M. Valiga, EdD, RN, FAAN, and Building the Science of Nursing Education: Foundation for Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning, edited by Cathleen M. Shultz, PhD, RN, CNE, FAAN. Also still in print: On Revolution and Revolutionaries: 25 Years of Reform and Innovation in Nursing Education, (2007) edited by Pamela M. Ironside, PhD, RN, FAAN, and The Soul of Leadership: Journeys in Leadership and Achievement with Distinguished African American Nurses by Hattie Bessent, EdD, RN, FAAN.

Copies of all NLN publications may be purchased at the web-based NLN Marketplace at www.nln.org; or email publications@nln.org.

Editors and reporters: For interview opportunities, please contact NLN chief communications officer, Karen R. Klestzick, at 212-812-0376 or kklestzick@nln.org.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers faculty development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 30,000 individual and 1,200 institutional members who represent all types of nursing education programs.