Initiatives aimed at retaining ethnically diverse student nurses on undergraduate programs: An integrative review

25^th World Congress on Nursing Care

July 24-26, 2017 Melbourne, Australia

Chris Gaul

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, New Zealand

Keynote: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

There is a well-documented concern about the global chronic shortage of nurses. Currently the UK has 24,500 fewer nurses than it needs. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is reporting that nursing school enrolment is not growing fast enough to meet demand. Coupled with this, strive towards creating a linguistically and culturally diverse workforce that can provide more culturally appropriate health care, whether this is in response to addressing the disparities of health in indigenous populations (Maori and Aboriginal) or acknowledgment of growing migrant populations within existing communities (Hispanic populations in the US). Thus we interrogated the evidence to establish the success of initiatives that focused on retention of ethnically diverse nursing students. We performed an integrative review of the literature on the reasons ethnically diverse undergraduate student nurses leave the profession before graduating. Databases were searched using key terms to identify papers that were relevant and rigorous. The literature was critically evaluated yielding 18 papers that were included in the review. The themes that emerged from the review were: Prediction, recruitment and retention, single facet approach once on the program and multi-facet approaches once on the program. The studies reviewed used a wide variety of incentives and methodologies. Although there are some positive outcomes from several of the initiatives it seems the issues of retention are complex and multifaceted. Given the global nature of this issue it would seem more robust, large scale research is required to further investigate the initiatives.

Biography :

Chris Gaul has completed her Masters in Nursing (Clinical) in 2014 and is a Senior Academic Staff Member within the Department of Health and Fitness team at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, where she co-ordinates the first year of the bachelor of nursing program. Her research interests predominately focus on supporting undergraduate nursing education and include attrition strategies and the use of technologies for learning. Her clinical interests are based on her passion to promote best practices in aged care and specifically the person with dementia.

Email: Chris.Gaul@nmit.ac.nz