Nurses Share Experiences

A presentation by a male nurse manager who expressed delight that he chose nursing and unashamedly shed a tear when he spoke about his patients goes a long way to fill prenursing students with hope and desire. Listening to a new graduate expressing how good she felt about her nursing education and how she feels respected by the medical and nursing staff helps to validate students' decision to choose nursing.

Current nursing students are invited to talk about the nursing student experience. They discuss the importance of prerequisite courses and how that content will be applied daily once they start their nursing class. The students express enthusiasm for the program as well as impart tips for studying. The prenursing students listen intently to these student speakers and ask many questions.

Faculty Talk About Curriculum

Because we want the students to know faculty, faculty share some of their nursing interests, talk about how they conduct their classes, and again, how prerequisite courses such as anatomy, physiology, biology, and sciences are important. A fundamentals' instructor can explain clinical classes and clear up any misconceptions that the student will be on his or her own in a clinical facility. The benefit of low student-to-faculty ratios is emphasized. Faculty provide information about uniforms and equipment that students need. Students in their final semester before their nursing classes start are filled with questions and "worries." These are addressed and the students are visibly relieved. A faculty member who shows slides of her interviews with children who have witnessed homicide has the students riveted and impressed. Thus, faculty take on a more personable and approachable persona.

Keeping Students Bonded

Another goal is keeping prenursing students bonded to nursing. We want them to retain the idealism of "feeling" like they are in a nursing program. So, we bring them to the nursing lab and show them the manikins and let them listen to heart and lung sounds. Their eyes light up. They ask numerous questions. We have graduate students speak to them about their special nursing interests. They tell the prenursing students why they are seeking higher education and the opportunities that await them.

Students often ask: What is a nurse's day like? What is the starting salary for new nurses? Do they have to work 12-hour shifts? Some questions can be anticipated, some cannot. Faculty, students, and graduates need to be skilled at addressing these issues honestly. Follow-up to these questions and concerns gives some direction for the next session. For example: Which hospitals encourage flexible work schedules? How will the nursing shortage affect them? How have salaries changed?

We really stress what is positive about nursing and discuss recent Gallup polls 2 that ranked nursing as a highly respected profession. Career flexibility and the broad range of nursing roles is also stressed. We focus on areas in and out of the hospitals and show how nurses can affect change with skills learned in their nursing programs. We emphasize nursing as a career for life, as a "journey of fulfillment."3 We actually coined a phrase in recruitment efforts, Be a Nurse: For Life! The double entendre can be used in this context over the nurses' lifetime, or as the impact that nurses make on the lives of others. We suggest that nurses can keep fresh and maintain their enthusiasm by changing their role many times. These sessions are as motivational as possible.

Prenursing Advisor

We have one faculty member who serves as prenursing advisor. She meets with students, discusses policy, and creates a contract with each student that includes a schedule of university core classes and nursing prerequisites. Many students feel that this is the only time a student meets with an advisor. However, this is not the case. The prenursing advisor is just an appointment away. We invite the advisor to visit at each session so that she becomes more familiar to the students. She reiterates that she is there for them and that they can call her at any time with questions or concerns. She also dispels any rumors that run rampant among students. She informs them about changes in policy and, especially, about available programs or scholarships.

The Larger Community

We encourage students to become more involved in the greater university community, and to enjoy what is available to them as a student. We invite the nurse practitioner from the student health center to inform them about her role and about the myriad of services available to each of them. We let them know about upcoming concerts and free forums. We also reinforce that the Student Nurses Association (SNA) is their organization. SNA board members come to tell the students about meetings and upcoming activities that they may enjoy. Many of these activities are open to students and their families. For example, recently the SNA invited Mercy Air Helicopter to campus. After a short talk from the nurses about flight and rescue nursing, the students were treated to a tour of the helicopter and were encouraged to bring their children aboard. The SNA members also encourage prenursing student participation in blood drives, charity walks, and Halloween visits to the pediatric units at the local hospitals.

Let's Have Fun

We want our sessions to be fun as well as informative. To encourage students to return, we have a raffle and refreshments at each session. Raffle items are solicited from the faculty and include mugs, key chains, pen lights, and paper products. Donated mugs are filled with candy or items are placed into gift baskets. By thinking creatively, we develop interesting raffle items at very little cost. We also receive recruitment donations from the university admissions department such as pens, book covers, and other items with the university logo. There is a small budget for refreshments and faculty often donate delicious treats for the refreshment table.

Rating our success is difficult to evaluate even as the retention numbers increase. Is it the sessions, the student's commitment, or a little of both? What we do know is what we hear. Students bring other students and their parents along. Study partners are formed. Students stay longer than the allotted time, often chatting with faculty or with the invited nurses from the community or with student nurses. We have returned to the session room an hour later to find students still engaged in conversations. One student commented, "I never came to these before, I didn't know how great they were." Alumni have stated, "I wish we had these sessions when I was a student."

Next semester we plan to have an invitational flyer to give to each new student at orientation. The prenursing advisor will also distribute the flyer to new students when she meets with them to complete their class schedules. The agenda will be on the department Web site and reminders will be sent via e-mail. Students will be able to send questions or discuss concerns via e-mail and we can share this information with all prenursing students.

This is an ongoing learning process for us and we are determined to experiment with the best approach. We are demonstrating to our students that we care about them and want them to succeed. We want them to... Be a Nurse: For Life!

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