Minimizing Unconscious Bias in Nursing School Admission

BACKGROUND

The potential exists for unconscious bias to influence decisions throughout the admission process to nursing school and derail holistic admission review processes. Although little is known about unconscious bias in nursing school admissions, unconscious bias has been demonstrated in nurse educators at levels similar to the general population.

METHOD

This article examines concepts of unconscious bias, factors that may interfere with accurate and fair assessment of applicants to nursing school, and ways to mitigate unconscious bias in the application and admission decision processes.

RESULTS

Interventions that have shown success in reducing unconscious bias center on increased awareness of the presence of unconscious bias and cognitive strategies that include motivation and effort to counter the unconscious bias.

CONCLUSION

Creating structures in the admission process that promote fairness and reduce the risk of relying on automatic judgments can minimize the influence of unconscious bias on admission decisions. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(6):317-323.].

The GRIND Project: Get Ready to Initiate a Nursing Degree

Numbers of students who declare a prenursing major and who enter a nursing program are vastly different. The GRIND (Get Ready to Initiate a Nursing Degree) research project, which operated for 3-week sessions from 2011 to 2015, exposed students to the nursing career through hospital tours and human simulation while instructing in study skills, dosage calculation, and standardized test preparation. Participants' understanding of nursing improved, and most felt at least somewhat to extremely prepared for nursing after participation. Student success in nursing is predicated on the tools learners acquire; investment in prenursing programs adds to student success.

Evaluation of a Summer Bridge: Critical Component of the Leadership 2.0 Program

BACKGROUND

Summer bridges facilitate the transition from high school to college. Although many schools employ summer bridges, few have published outcomes. This article's purpose is to share preconceptions of college by underrepresented and disadvantaged nursing students and describe important elements and long-term impact of a summer bridge, a component of the Leadership 2.0 program.

METHOD

A longitudinal study design was used to collect baseline, short-term, and long-term post-summer bridge data. Methods included pre- and postsurveys, interviews, and focus groups.

RESULTS

After bridge completion, students felt more prepared for the nursing program. Students ranked socialization components as most important. The summer bridge had lasting impact through the first year, where grade point average and retention of underrepresented and disadvantaged bridge students was comparable to the majority first-year students.

CONCLUSION

The summer bridge was effective in preparing nursing students for the first year of college. Through holistic evaluation, unique aspects of socialization critical to student success were uncovered.

The Culturally Diverse Nursing Student

Purpose:

The purpose of this article is to discuss the facilitators and barriers to the retention and graduation of the culturally diverse nursing student using the social ecological model (SEM).

Design:

Literature review.

Method:

A review of the literature was conducted and the SEM was used to evaluate the facilitators and barriers to the success of culturally diverse nursing students.

Findings:

The SEM is an appropriate means to evaluate the facilitators and barriers to the retention and success of the culturally diverse nursing student. Researchers link health disparities in marginalized populations with diversity of the health care workforce. Consequently, the SEM provides a multidimensional view of the problem of focus, while providing a guide for the development for sustainable solutions to address the issues. Additional research is necessary using a social determinant of health model such as the SEM to facilitate dialogue and change in current retention strategies.

Black African nurses educated in the United States

Black Africans are one of the fastest growing immigrant and refugee populations in the United States, having increased by 100% in the 2000s. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how Black African nurses experience nursing education within the United States. This qualitative study provided a rich description of the phenomenon. Nine Black African nurses from the midwestern United States participated. Five male and four female participants represented the countries of Sierra-Leone, Kenya, Liberia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Seven participants had been in the country less than 2 years, and two had been in the country less than 4 years. Optimistic determination was the essence of how participants adapted to challenges while in their nursing programs, and four themes emerged relating to academics, competing demands, culture, and relationships. Through an awareness of the unique needs of this student population, educators can develop strategies to improve retention.

Examining the influence of noncognitive variables on the intention of minority baccalaureate nursing students to complete their program of study

Retention of minority baccalaureate nursing students is imperative to resolving the absence of minority representation within the nursing profession and to aid in the elimination of health disparities among minority health care recipients. Improving minority nursing student retention requires a closer examination of the impact of noncognitive variables that contribute to attrition. This study explored the predictive value of select noncognitive variables on the intention of minority baccalaureate nursing students to complete their degree. A survey was sent to 1,519 students enrolled in generic, prelicensure baccalaureate nursing programs in the North Carolina University System. Unique data characteristics required the use of both parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses. The regression model included variables of age, race, gender, academic development, faculty interaction, peer interaction, hours worked, and faculty concern and accounted for 29% of the variation in student intention to complete their degree.

A critical exploration of how English language learners experience nursing education

AIM

With nursing education reform calling for greater numbers of graduates from diverse backgrounds, this study explored the experiences of students who identified as English language learners (ELs).

BACKGROUND

Educators may view students from underrepresented groups at the margins of nursing education. Minimal research on the experiences of students identifying as ELs exists.

METHOD

Interpretive phenomenological and critical methodologies were used to explore students' lived experiences in the nursing classroom.

RESULTS

Academic progress involved additional time and effort dedicated to learning English and the languages of health care and nursing. Traditional and monocultural pedagogical practices, representing acts of power and dominance, thwarted learning. Yet students made progress despite less effective pedagogical practices and socioeconomic realities. This inquiry began with one notion of identity, "English-learners," but evolved to students' perceptions of "being-in-the-world," wholeness, and future endeavors.

CONCLUSION

This study counters the dominant view that students without a greater command of English are not ready for the rigors of nursing education.

Success in nursing school: black nursing students' perception of peers, family, and faculty

Blacks comprise 12.3% of the U.S. population and only 4.6% of registered nurses nationally. Moreover, Blacks have the highest percentage of nongraduates among nursing students compared with other U.S. racial/ethnic groups. This descriptive qualitative study examined the perceptions and experiences that contributed to success for Black graduates, ages 18 to 50, who attended nursing degree programs with predominantly White students and identified the experiences students credited for their success. Data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 participants. Categories and patterns were established using content analysis. Findings suggest that the Black students valued peer support, interactions with White students' study groups, family support, and faculty encouragement and support as factors that enhanced success. This article focuses on those supports students identified as essential to graduation. The findings of this study demonstrate that it takes a community to create a nurse. Specific implications for student retention are discussed.

Cultural diversity in nursing education: perils, pitfalls, and pearls

Increasing diversity in the classroom challenges nursing educators to identify issues that complicate teaching (perils), analyze barriers for themselves and their students (pitfalls), and select new strategies for working with nontraditional students (pearls). This article identifies concerns arising from attitudes and values within nursing and common approaches to diversity education, and then discusses key issues in nursing education that relate to human nature, culture, faculty workload, and student demographics. Finally, some strategies are proposed for increasing the effectiveness of professional preparation with diverse students through a focus on culturally congruent education and development of faculty cultural competence.

Interactional Justice in Student— Staff Nurse Encounters

The focus of this article is on nursing students' perceptions of interactional justice during student—staff nurse encounters. A descriptive survey using a combined questionnaire on interactional justice was used to collect the data. Reliability analysis for the theoretical dimensions of interactional justice revealed a Cronbach's alpha value greater than 0.70. The student nurses perceived staff nurses to be interactionally unjust during their contact with them. Significant differences were observed between interactional justice and some demographic characteristics of students. Fourth year students perceived staff to provide better justifications for decisions that affect them than third and second year students. Although black students, in contrast to white students, perceived clinical staff as significantly more truthful, these results are inconclusive. Students who engage for longer periods of time in the clinical learning context perceived their relationships and how they are treated by clinical staff as more just. Recommendations for further research are made.