Recruiting Underrepresented Students for Nursing Schools

Abstract

Preparing a richly diverse nursing student population is essential to improving health outcomes for the nation and achieving a robust supply of health-care providers who better reflect the society we serve. As the U.S. population becomes more diverse, cultural competence is necessary among health-care professionals in order to practice with cultural humility. Cultural humility refers to a commitment and active engagement in a lifelong learning process that allows individuals to better meet the complex health-care needs of patients, communities, and colleagues. The design of an effective recruitment strategy should be driven by the mission of the educational institution and aligned to reflect the targeted population of potential students. Recruitment efforts and activities should be designed to improve the ability to attract a diverse population and more firmly establish a continuing pipeline of possible students. This article presents strategies such as building relationships and partnerships with 2-year community colleges with upper division nursing programs, and employing technology solutions to enhance recruitment and admissions of a diverse pool of applicants. Technology solutions can help manage large applicant pools, help staff coordinate a communication campaign so there is frequent contact with prospects, and capture notes throughout the recruitment process that can be utilized in a holistic admission strategy. Recruitment is the first step; to address retention, students must be welcomed into an inclusive learning environment where they can successfully advance, in order to achieve the goal of a more diverse nursing workforce.

Recruitment of Minorities into Nursing, Best Practices: A Scoping Review

“…Financial support was not enough in itself to assure the success of minority students, but must be tied to other supports (e.g., tutoring, advisement, mentoring) [14] [15] [33] [34] [35] [36]. Pre-admission testing of potential applicants and those admitted to nursing was an essential factor in three articles [15] [35] [36].…”

“…Mentoring was a significant factor in each of the ROL articles and categorized separately as peer or workplace related in this review [14] [15] [33] [34] [35] [36] (Table 2). Peer mentoring usually included upper-level nursing students acting as guides.…”

“…Partnerships could include those with local schools (elementary, MS, HS) hospitals, healthcare agencies, local businesses, community organizations, and minority groups. DeWitty and colleagues stressed the importance of a schools' website as another avenue for recruitment of minorities [33]. Audits of the SON website should be done to assure that it is current, easy to navigate, had comprehensive admission information, faculty contacts, and snapshots of diverse students with compelling quotes [33].…”

“…DeWitty and colleagues stressed the importance of a schools' website as another avenue for recruitment of minorities [33]. Audits of the SON website should be done to assure that it is current, easy to navigate, had comprehensive admission information, faculty contacts, and snapshots of diverse students with compelling quotes [33]. Recruitment efforts targeting family members was featured in several ROL articles [15] [33] [34] [35].…”

“…Family members, including parents may have limited knowledge of the academic requirements and costs associated with nursing school or negative views on opportunities open to nurses. Therefore, parents and family should be included in information sessions as part of recruitment activities [14] [15] [33] [34] [35] [36].…”