The journey toward increased minority representation in nursing begins with efforts in nursing education to successfully recruit, retain, and graduate minority students. As with other hallmarks of nursing education excellence, program diversity goals should be integrated into the program outcomes and systematically evaluated as part of an annual quality improvement cycle. The collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data regarding minority student success is an integral part of establishing and evaluating program success with graduating racially diverse students. The commitment to a systematic analysis of program data can create a culture of evidence in nursing education that leads to improvement in practices, processes, and program outcomes. The purpose of this quality improvement project was aimed at increasing access to minority student enrollment data through the development of an information dashboard to collect, organize and present student enrollment in an organized, user friendly format.
Methods:
This quality improvement project was planned utilizing the questions posed in the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) informatics theory and the Model For improvement framework. The project implementation plan was designed to answer the Model for Improvement questions using the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) rapid cycle methodology. The PDSA process was informed by a literature search and information gathered in stakeholder interviews. This data was used to guide the information dashboard format and the accompanying online user education module. There were two PDSA cycles conducted during the development and implementation of this project. An expedited exempt IRB approval was received and a purposive sample of seven nursing program directors at the University was recruited via email to participate in the project. Nursing program directors were selected as project participants because they have a key role in program evaluation and the Department of Nursing quality cycle. They serve as primary participants in the coordination and facilitation of discussions and decisions related to the establishment and measurement of program outcomes in the quality cycle. Program directors also have an awareness of the systems and processes that impact student enrollment in their respective programs. Participation in the project included a 30 minute interview, followed by the completion of a 20 minute user education video, review of the dashboard, and an online user feedback survey. The directors represented two pre-licensure baccalaureate programs, an RN-BSN program, a graduate nurse educator program, master’s level nurse practitioner program, and a doctor of nursing practice program.
Results:
The final dashboard successfully integrated institutionally sourced data, organized by program, race, and academic year into a single page electronic format. The results of the final survey revealed positive user feedback regarding the usability of the dashboard related to the format and function of the dashboard and access to minority student enrollment data. The survey scores were analyzed to determine user experience with the usability of the dashboard and access to data. In all questions related to form, function, and accessibility dashboard users responded positively with “strongly agree” with the exception of the usability of the filter feature in the dashboard that was rated with “agree” by two of the users. The dashboard user evaluation survey results indicated the electronic dashboard presented was well organized, clear and easy to navigate.
Conclusion:
Program evaluation is essential to ensuring quality in nursing practice and education. The implementation of information dashboards as a strategy to increase access to program evaluation data should be explored further in nursing education settings. This quality improvement project demonstrated an increase in access to student racial demographic data when institutional data was organized and presented in an information dashboard. Additionally, the process of developing the dashboard using the PDSA methodology facilitated the identification of key stakeholders, information systems and processes impacting access to racial demographic data. Ultimately, it is hoped the implementation of the minority student enrollment dashboard strengthens the data available to evaluate nursing program success with graduating minority students.