Hispanic And Latino Nurses You Should Know About

Hispanic and Latino/a nurses made up 5.6% of registered nurse respondents in 2020 survey data, up 0.3% from 2017. The workforce is still disproportionately white, and that gap is exactly what the nurses on this page have spent their careers closing.

The trailblazers below include the founder of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and a nurse who built a community for Latina nurses. They mentor, advocate, and keep changing who shows up in the profession.

How Hispanic Nursing Organizations Support Latino/a Nurses

NAHN points to socioeconomic factors that drive Hispanic nursing students and faculty out through attrition. To counter it, the group gives high school students the prerequisite classes they need before nursing school, profiles Latino/a and Hispanic role models, and runs the Mentors Connection program, which pairs prospective nurses with experienced ones for career guidance.

NAHN wants Hispanic representation in nursing to climb from 5.6% to 18.5%, matching the Hispanic and Latino/a share of the U.S. population.

Influential Hispanic and Latino/a Nurses to Know

Ildaura Murillo-Rohde, PhD, RN, FAAN

Murillo-Rohde moved from Panama to San Antonio, Texas, in 1945. She saw how few Hispanic nurses there were and decided to become one. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing at Columbia University, then a master's and a doctorate at New York University. In 1975 she helped found NAHN to advance Hispanic and Latino/a nursing education and service.

Hector Hugo Gonzalez, PhD, RN

Gonzalez attended nursing school in his home state of Texas during the 1960s. In 1974 he became the first Mexican-American RN to earn a doctorate. He went on to serve as the first Hispanic district president in the Texas Nursing Association, and as chairman of the Department of Nursing Education at San Antonio College he built flexible curriculum options that helped students from underrepresented communities become licensed RNs.

Henrieta Villaescusa, MPH, RN

Villaescusa spent her public health career expanding opportunities for women and Hispanics. Her firsts include the first Hispanic nurse appointed Health Administrator at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the first Mexican-American Chief Nurse Consultant in the Office of Maternal and Child Health. After retiring, she helped the Surgeon General shape the Hispanic Health Initiative on the West Coast and joined the Task Force on Minority Health during the Reagan administration.

Hilda Ortiz-Morales, NPcs, PhD, AAHIVS

After earning a doctorate in healthcare administration, Ortiz-Morales built a program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx that delivers care to patients with HIV. Most of her patients are Hispanic and African American, and 90% are on Medicaid or Medicare. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at Herbert H. Lehman College.

Elizabeth Aquino, PhD, RN

Aquino built her career as a surgical-trauma intensive care nurse and an associate professor of nursing at DePaul University in Chicago. She is president of the American Nurses Association-Illinois and has served as NAHN treasurer and president of the NAHN-Illinois chapter. She mentors Latino/a nurses and works to expand health services in the Latino/a community.

Martha Salmon, RN

Salmon knew at age 12 that she wanted to be a nurse, but the path was long. She finished the prerequisites and nursing school while raising two children, then started Latina, RN to encourage more Latinas to take pride in their heritage and pursue healthcare careers.

Adriana Perez, PhD, CRNP, ANP-BC, FAAN, FGSA

Perez followed her grandmother, a nurse in Mexico, into the profession. As a postdoctoral fellow she developed a community-based exercise intervention tailored to the cultural and linguistic needs of older Latinas. She has served as president of NAHN's Phoenix chapter and is a diversity consultant for the Center to Champion Nursing in America at AARP.