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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Nancy W. DeVilder, MS RN¹, L. Michele Issel, PhD RN², Donna M. Greer, BS¹, and Kathleen A. Baldwin, PhD RN¹. (1) College of Nursing, University of Illinois-Chicago, 1515 5th Avenue, Suite 400, Quad-Cities Regional Program, Moline, IL 61265, 309-757-9467, ndevil@uic.edu, (2) School of Public Health, University of Illinois-Chicago, 1603 W Taylor Street (MC 923), Community Health Sciences Division, Chicago, IL 60612

The Rural Mentored BSN program at University of Illinois Chicago School of Nursing is designed to offer educational support and personalized mentoring to minority and disadvantaged individuals living in rural settings who are interested in becoming RNs and have work experience in roles such as community workers, peer health educators, medical assistants, home health aides, and technicians. The program, funded by HRSA Bureau of Health Professions, aims to address health disparities and the nursing shortage by increasing the likelihood of educational success of program participants. Phase 1 of this community-based program facilitates their progression from entry level healthcare positions toward becoming RNs by providing them with a structured and facilitated 10 week program that covers topics including study skills, time management, nursing career options, and applying to nursing school. Implementing the program required overcoming challenges, including: low educational self-efficacy of potential participants, logistics of minority recruitment across a wide geographic region, substantive life and financial barriers of participants, and poor prior academic performance. Despite overcoming these challenges, system barriers to their nursing career paths remain that can only be addressed at broader policy levels.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• List three factors that prevent minority and disadvantaged persons from entering nursing.
• Use lessons learned for implementing similar programs.
• Recognize inherent limitations of such programs in overcoming the nursing shortage and of increasing the proportion of disadvantaged who enter nursing.

Keywords: Education, Minorities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered