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Norma Martinez Rogers, Ph.D., RN, FAAN is a 50-year veteran of UT Health San Antonio Nursing School and a living legend. In November, she received top honors as a nurse at the 2022 Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., and she became the second Latina to receive the Living Her Legend award. is.
We are proud to honor her as Nurse of the Week.
Martinez Rogers grew up in a Dallas project, didn’t speak English until third grade, and her family worked multiple jobs to get her through school. But she says there was one thing she needed to be successful and it worked for her. It’s the desire to go to college.
“I knew I was ambitious and didn’t want to be poor. I wanted an education.”
Today Martinez Rogers is a Research Professor and Professor Emeritus.
“You have to have dreams that you can do, not fantasies,” she says. “I graduated from Incarnate Ward College with a bachelor’s degree, and at the time there were only three Latinos. In college, I was the only Latina on stage,” she adds.
Since then, the first-generation Hispanic college graduate has spent her time advocating for underserved populations, nursing education, and health policy change, and mentoring those who follow her.
“There are so few of us Latino nurses, so there was no one I could relate to. No one who looked like you,” she explains.
Her brainchild is Juntos Podemos. This is a grant-driven mentoring program that identifies high school students interested in careers in health and Hispanic nursing students who need a little inspiration to graduate. They are assigned mentors who have gone through many of the milestones they have to face in order to stay in class and graduate.
She says the last two years have been difficult as many first-generation Latinos face financial hardship.
Martinez Rogers says that demanding programs that require students to go to work and school at the same time often keep students from reaching their goals.
But that’s not all. Martinez Rogers also founded a program called the International Association of Latino Nurses/Nurse Leaders.
“The organization is about encouraging and mentoring our faculty of nursing leaders. How do you get promoted? How do you stay in office?” she explains.
Martinez Rogers is an inspirational woman who has broken so many walls that she is considered a national treasure. Yet she lives by a simple motto: “To receive, you must first give.”
Nominated for Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday on her DailyNurse.com, nurses make a difference in the lives of patients, students and colleagues.it is recommended to nominate a nurse The next Nurse of the Week features the people who have made an impact in your life online and in our weekly newsletter.
