Nurturing Our Young

Purpose:

Historically nurses have been known to ‘eat their young’. Within the nursing department at a Midwestern university, the faculty has adopted a new approach to relationships with future nursing students. The nursing department has incorporated activities to ‘nurture our young’. At the university nursing faculty are not typically engaged with freshman nursing major students. Because the faculty in the nursing department usually only teach nursing subject classes, they do not have the exposure to the pre-nursing students. The nursing program starts during the junior year of classes. Last year the author expressed a desire to be more involved with the freshman pre-nursing students. The university has offered best practice retention strategies for freshman for several years. These strategies include learning and living communities; student success courses; new student orientation; and focused advising (Hanover Research, 2014). 

Methods:

In addition to the strategies already implemented by the university, the nursing department wanted to develop a mentoring program for the freshman to help ‘nurture our young’. Mentoring is a development process where a more experienced person guides a less experienced person in a given situation for an expressed purpose or outcome (Marquis & Huston, 2015). Mentoring at the college level helps develop social support, role modeling, and opportunities to develop new skills (DuBois & Silverthorn, 2005). The goal of formal mentoring programs is to provide collegiality, networking, listening, & encouragement to the mentees. Research shows that if college students are retained as freshmen to the sophomore year, persistence to graduation is greater than 80 percent (Hadidi, Lindquist, & Buckwalter, 2013).

The university requires all freshman students enroll in the freshman seminar course (student success course). However, the university does not require all departments to offer a learning and living community (LLC). As the nursing department was pleased with the positive effects of the mentoring program, the faculty also saw the need for the LLC to help ‘nurture our young’. For the academic year of 2014-2015 the nursing department developed the Nightingale Power LLC for freshman nursing major students. The LLC started with recruitment at the student recognition programs and the spring enrollment sessions. Once the LLC was identified the Nightingale Power LLC committee chose peer mentors to help with the activities and bonding. The peer mentors were chosen based on their nursing major and involvement with campus activities. The LLC participates in social activities coordinated by the Nightingale Power committee. These activities include the Nightingale Power orientation, back to school picnic, the homecoming float parade, the state nursing legislative trip, and the mentoring project. In addition to social activities the LLC participates in academic classes together to further develop their study habits and collegiality. The LLC courses in the first semester are taught by the nursing department faculty. The students also live on the same floor in the residential housing. The peer mentors and faculty provide consultation time throughout the semester in the students’ residential building. The lead coordinator of the LLC also serves as the students’ academic advisor. The advisor meets with the freshman three times each semester to provide concise, individualized advising. Positive emotions can develop from relationships with peers in residence halls, faculty instructors in the major, and academic major advisors (Vianden & Barlow, 2014). 

A final activity to promote persistence and retention in the nursing program to help ‘nurture our young’ is an assignment in the Leadership practicum course. The final semester senior nursing students are paired with junior nursing students as these students are in their first semester of the nursing program. The senior student meets with the junior student in an informal setting to answer questions about the program in general or specifics related to their junior nursing classes. Then the senior meets the junior for a clinical at the hospital. The senior is the junior’s mentor for the clinical day. They work together to care for the junior’s assigned patient. The senior is present to guide the junior and provide leadership. 

Results:

The mentoring project piloted in spring 2014 with 11 mentors and 11 mentees. The mentors were volunteers from the senior nursing class. The mentees were volunteers from the freshman pre-nursing students. The students were paired and participated in structured activities to develop their mentoring relationship. The students participated in a total of seven activities together. Throughout the project the students completed surveys to assess their mentoring relationship and the development of their communication and self-confidence. At the completion of the spring 2014 pilot project 82% of the freshman stated they would continue with nursing as their major. The author plans to continue this project yearly hoping to increase participation.

Midway through the academic year the Nightingale Power LLC persistence rate is 86%. Four students have identified that nursing is not for them and have asked for different majors. The Nightingale Power LLC has provided the students an earlier introduction to the nursing department faculty and current nursing students.

Both junior and senior nursing students have expressed satisfaction with the Mentoring assignment.

Conclusion:

The author is the coordinator of the mentoring project; lead coordinator of the Nightingale Power LLC; and the lead faculty for the Leadership practicum course. The mentoring project, the Nightingale Power LLC, and the Leadership practicum mentoring assignment are all ways that the nursing department faculty ‘nurtures our young’. The nursing department strives to provide an encouraging environment for the nursing students to promote their interest in and commitment to nursing as a profession.