Learning Objective #1: List positive reasons for creating a mentorship program for high school research students

Learning Objective #2: Discuss the factors needed to create a formalized research mentorship program for high school students

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Background: The nursing shortage is impacted by multiple career choices. Nursing competes with the traditional areas of medicine, teaching, and business, and with fields that have opened up as a result of computer technology, including information sciences, computer graphics, and multimedia. Nursing as a career choice is something that many young men and women are not exposed to. Nursing as a scholarly pursuit is an area that many are not familiar with.

Purpose: To create a process that advances the concept of nursing as an important and scholarly career while providing opportunities for nursing leaders to perform community service and encourage research.

Methods: An STT Kappa Gamma member on faculty at StonyBrook School of Nursing partnered with a local high school to mentor a student enrolled in the science research course. University faculty had, over the years, served as mentors, but no student had ever been associated with the nursing school. In fact, the research teacher was not aware that nurses held PhD's or did research. The student conferred with the nursing faculty mentor weekly. The mentor guided the project, helped obtain clinical placement, supervised an IRB proposal and assisted in analysis of the resulting data.

Results: The research resulted in a local award, acceptance of a poster abstract at a national conference (funded by Kappa Gamma), and submission to the Intel Science Competition. The most important result, however, was that the student, high school faculty, and the entire research class were exposed to nursing as a scholarly profession. The research presentation in regional forums exposed a large community to the scientific method as applied to nursing research.

Conclusion: Implementing collaborative relationships between university nursing faculty and community school research programs will benefit the school and provide a forum to expose young men and women to nursing as scholarly career.