A review of minority recruitment and retention models implemented in undergraduate nursing programs

Abstract

Background: Recruiting, retaining, and graduating more minorities to diversify the nursing workforce is a national priority, which can lead to a decrease in healthcare disparities. The purpose of this review of literature is to highlight models developed and implemented in nursing education that focus on recruiting, retaining, and graduating minorities, and the degree of success obtained.

Methodology: Electronic database searches of Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and ScienceDirect were conducted using specific keywords: minority, recruitment, retention, graduation, nursing students, models. The search yielded seven articles published in peer-reviewed journals that described each schools model, strategies, and the implementation process used to recruit, retain, and graduate minority nursing students.  A tool was developed by the researcher for this review then used to analyze articles for inclusion.

Results: Findings revealed that successful models included various combinations of academic support, mentoring, student financial support, and community partnerships that were effective in recruiting, retaining, and graduating minority students in nursing education.

Conclusions/: The articles reviewed highlighted that when combinations of multiple strategies that includes; academic support, mentoring, student financial support, and community partnerships were used in minority nursing student populations there was increased minority retention. All articles included in this review reported minority nursing students who were given support prior to entrance and during nursing school, recruitment, retention and graduation increased.