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Tuesday, November 3, 2009: 3:05 PM
Learning Objective 1: Employ language assessment strategies to increase retention of ESL students, graduation rates, NCLEX-RN passage, and join the professional nursing workforce.
Learning Objective 2: Employ successfull strategies for ESL students to join the professional nursing workforce as a resource in culturally competent care for diverse client-based groups.
The overall goal of Students at Risk, Strategies for Success (SRSS) program is to prepare at-risk students for the academic challenges of a Philadelphia baccalaureate nursing program and to retain ESL students in the nursing major to earn a BSN, pass the NCLEX-RN, and join the professional nursing workforce to become a culturally competent resource for diverse client-based groups. One component of the program is the Risk Assessment Profile, Strategies for Success (RAPSS) instrument to assess risk factors. Overall, the demographic profiles of the baccalaureate program revealed 27% diverse students in the full-time program and 57% in the part-time evening programs. The RAPSS instrument, scored as pilot data, showed at-risk current students representing the three pre-licensure undergraduate nursing student groups that are in need of a risk reduction intervention. One risk factor assessed for current full-time students was a verbal SAT in which 58% scored below the Pennsylvania 497 average and part-time students scored 88% below the average. Philadelphia School District students’ reading proficiency is 40.7%. Language assessment on RAPSS revealed 18 seniors and 22 juniors needing English as a Second Language (ESL) tutors. The students were having difficulty completing exams on time and understanding the English Syntax of the questions. A pilot Strategy for Success program being employed is voluntary TOEFL testing with extra English course work recommended as needed. Further comparisons can be done to determine if these risk assessment parameter language strategies employed will increase the ESL students’ success in retention and progression, graduation rates, NCLEX-RN passage and joining the nurse workforce.