Nursing Education for Total Outcomes for Success Diver Students and Strategies
What are Strategies to Increase the Success of Diverse Students
Many nursing programs have created academic success initiatives that include specific strategies to course learning, retention, and progression. Although recent reports (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014b; Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2011; National League for Nursing, 2013) cite the need for increasing diversity in the nursing workforce, nursing leaders and nurse educators need to enhance programs and strategies to promote the success of diverse students.
Minority students from diverse backgrounds and varying levels
of secondary school preparation generally experience continuing disadvantages
in the postsecondary nursing education environments (Condon et al., 2013;
Dapremont, 2014; Hockings, Brett, & Terentjevs, 2012; Loftin et al., 2012;
Saunders & Kardia, 2014).
Role Models and Mentors In Nursing Education
Although the recruitment and retention of racially and ethnically diverse students in the nursing profession is an important issue, and many nursing programs are directing considerable efforts and resources to recruit and admit diverse student bodies, equal, if not elevated, efforts must be dedicated to assist these students toward academic success (Baker, 2010; Coddington & Karsten, 2014; Loftin et al., 2012; Shelton, 2012).
It is important to recognize that many nursing programs rely on standardized tests and GPAs as criteria for admission. These types of recruitment strategies do not take into account the educational experience of many minority students and constitute incomplete efforts to strategy for success for diverse students beyond admission quotas.
It is painfully obvious to potential applicants who are socially or economically disadvantaged, particularly when a limited number of admission slots are available, that they may be excluded when admissions are determined by GPA alone.
Such selection processes reap outcomes where only a few diverse
students are admitted, and many of those tend to be labeled “high-risk” (Baker,
2010; Coddington & Karsten, 2014; Loftin et al., 2012; Shelton, 2012).
Practicing minority nurses can be encouraged to function as role models and mentors. Many nursing students plan to practice in a hospital or community setting after graduation, and matching them with a practicing nurse is a way to instill the confidence that they can be successful (Payton, Howe, Timmons, & Richardson, 2013).
Nursing school faculty could work with their school's alumni association and with diverse nursing groups to provide role models for students. Faculty commitment is crucial to the success of all students, and those students who must also overcome barriers need a student faculty relationship with a faculty member who is not responsible for assigning a grade.
Students report that mentoring by faculty is the single most important strategy for success to aid in retention (Baker, 2010). Other highly effective student–faculty–centered strategies include faculty availability, faculty tutoring, and timely feedback on clinical performance and test performance (Baker, 2010).
It is essential for all faculty members and administrators to develop sensitivity with regard to the diversity of the students on their campus and awareness of the needs of these students. Faculty commitment to student success results in more successful students.
Faculty members who represent the dominant race at the school can also assist in the recruitment and retention of minority students by modeling a commitment to developing cultural competence among the faculty (Campinha Bacote, 2012).
Assessment of faculty cultural competence is an important step in gaining commitment and support of the value of working with racially and ethnically diverse students and colleagues.
Campinha Bacote (2012) developed a cultural competence assessment tool based upon her model of cultural competence, the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals in Mentoring (IAPCC-M), to assist in developing a culturally competent mentoring program for faculty.
Use of culturally conscious mentoring programs can help improve the success of minority and other diverse students in nursing programs. In the model, cultural competence is viewed as a process that involves the integration of cultural awareness to achieve competence in mentoring.
Using the Awareness, Skill, Knowledge, Encounters, and Cultural
Desire (ASKED) model as a basis for developing a mentoring program could help
address the critical need for increasing and retaining diverse students in
nursing programs (see Chapter 16 for additional information on multicultural
education ).
Faculty can also advocate for policies, procedures, and support services that assist students and support an institutional faculty “mix” that is diverse. Faculty members need to remember that many students feel isolated in their educational experience and therefore faculty may need to be more assertive in establishing and maintaining open lines of communication with minority students.
Helping Students access campus support services will help students feel more connected to the institution.
Support Systems for Students In Nursing Education
Participating in special support programs can increase the chance of academic success for culturally diverse students. Many schools of nursing have identified and implemented strategies focused on securing the success of the culturally diverse students.
At California State University, a Minority Retention Project
(MRP) was developed to improve the retention and success of its minority
students (Gardner, 2005). The MRP was designed based on Tinto's Theory of
Student
Retention (1993) that those students who felt connected and committed to their
educational institution were more likely to be successful in their academic
pursuits and achieve graduation.
Building
upon that premise, California State University then identified the role that
faculty played in providing a safe, warm, and nurturing learning environment,
both in the didactic and clinical settings (Gardner, 2005).
Support for improved English language proficiency has been provided in the form of language evaluation, academic networking, faculty interventions, and social activities to enhance student ability to be successful in nursing school (Torregosa et al., 2015).
Preliminary results of the program indicated that
academic networks provided the significant mediation role between entrance
grade point averages (GPAs) and academic success of students (Torregosa et al.,
2015).
Support for English as an additional language (EAL) student was provided at one historically black university in the form of language, academic, faculty, and social activities to enhance a student's ability to be successful in nursing school (Brown & Marshall, 2008).
Preliminary results of the program
indicated increased retention of EAL students along with higher scores in
standardized exit and first time NCLEX exam scores and improved perceptions of
the learning environment (Brown & Marshall, 2008).
Meeting the Challenge of Inclusivity In Nursing Education
Although faculty may believe that their classrooms embrace cultural and societal neutrality, given all the discussion and research devoted to the needs of diverse learner, nurse educators need to embark on an honest assessment of institutional support for inclusive teaching and individual classroom strategies that engage in inclusive teaching.
It is one thing to gain an
understanding of students' social identities and to recognize the important
role that nursing programs and faculty have in the recruitment, retention, and
success of diverse and at-risk students. It is quite another to be proactive
and incorporate diversity into classrooms and curricula.
Even classrooms are ones in which students and educators work together to create and sustain an environment where students feel safe to express views, course content can be viewed from multiple perspectives, opinions can be expressed to the greater understanding of all concerned, and all lived experiences (student and faculty) can be shared and valued with equality (Saunders & Kardia, 2014).
First and foremost, nursing educators need to recognize their own tendencies to stereotype students or to hold biases. This important step is of primary importance to create an inclusive environment for student and faculty interactions.
Only after this initial self-examination can faculty (and
institutions) proceed to consider multiple other factors for the establishment
of inclusive classroom strategies, including an understanding as to what degree
class interactions are affected by course content; prior assumptions and
awareness of potential cultural issues in classroom settings; plans for class
sessions, including student learning groups; knowledge of diverse student
backgrounds; and evolving issues, comments, and interactions during class
processes (Saunders & Kardia, 2014).
Teaching Strategies to Promote Success In Nursing Education
If
nurse educators in nursing programs continue to teach in the same way that they
have always approached the classroom and student learning, there will be very
little value and progress achieved in the transformation of nursing education
for the twenty first century.
Teaching with presentation slides must be put aside to develop new ways of teaching and learning such that innovative teaching strategies, the employment of new technologies, and risk taking can lead the way to creative methodologies for learning for all students.
Simulations, gaming, art, narrative, reflection, and problem and context-based teaching and learning strategies have been successfully implemented to meet the diverse learning needs of students (Crookes, Crookes, & Walsh, 2013).
The recruitment of an academically qualified and diverse student body has been an emphasis of many nursing schools. The data are beginning to show that, although recruitment is effective, there is concern that minority students appear to be less successful than white students in graduating from nursing programs.
It is important for nurse educators to reexamine their minority student recruitment efforts as well as the teaching and learning methods and support services available for these students. Recruiting diverse faculty and developing them as role models and mentors is essential to the successful recruitment and retention of diverse students.
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