Factors That Challenge and/or Facilitate a Military Student’s Transition to the Civilian Nursing Classroom

Purpose: The purpose of this integrative review was to examine the literature regarding military students to determine the characteristics that educators should be familiar with in order to successfully transition them to the civilian classroom, decrease their attrition in nursing education programs, and ultimately contribute to the diversity of the nursing pipeline.

Methods: Whittemore and Knafl’s (2005) classic five-step integrative review method was used to critically analyze and synthesize the literature. This methodology follows a systematic process that includes problem identification, literature search, data evaluation, data analysis, and presentation. Jeffreys' (2015) Nursing Universal Retention and Success Model then provided the organizing framework for the integrative review because it incorporates multidimensional factors to positively impact student outcomes. “Retention decisions, persistence, and optimal outcomes [are] based on the interaction of student profile characteristics, student affective factors, academic factors, environmental factors, academic outcomes, psychological outcomes, outside surrounding factors, and professional integration factors,” (p.426). The literature search included articles published in English from 2005 to 2019 and the electronic databases explored were CINAHL, Scopus, ERIC, and Education Source. Over 70 articles were included in the final sample with the majority of the literature coming from non-nursing journals.

Results: The integrative review of the literature revealed strategies to successfully transition and retain this distinctive and diverse population – undergraduate military nursing students – to the civilian classroom. Additionally, implications for nursing education, research, and practice were ascertained.

Conclusion: The pipeline for nursing students is shifting and it is undeniable that nursing students with a prior military career are playing a significant part in that shift, especially given the funding opportunities offered by the Bureau of Health Workforce (2013 & 2019). Hence, the significance of identifying the factors that challenge and/or facilitate the transition of military nursing students to the civilian classroom is that they are retained in their nursing programs, graduate on time, and pass their licensure exam on the first attempt. Given that the majority of the active duty military are male but also reflect great racial diversity (Reynolds & Shendruk, 2018), the opportunity to diversify the profession of nursing should not be missed. Consequently, the nursing pipeline will remain robust and become more diverse if military nursing students are successful with their nursing education.