Enhancing Success and Professional Preparation in Community College-CSUN Minority Nursing Students

Challenged by economic, academic, and social determinants, minority students interested in nursing often seek community education, which lengthens their years in education, delays their employability, increases education cost, and reduces their likelihood to pursue BSN education. Community college students, therefore, represent an important opportunity for efforts aimed at producing greater numbers of culturally and ethnically competent and diverse BSN nurses. The creation and expansion of a CSUN ADN-to-BSN collaborative pathway to include four community colleges has been tremendously effective in seamlessly transitioning ADN disadvantaged and minority students into BSN education and hastening their graduation, contributing to a diverse nursing force in less time and at lower educational cost. The success of CSUN?s community college pathway program is attracting more ADN programs as collaborators and greater numbers of students from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds into our BSN program. Additionally, the success of our first Song-Brown grant in timely graduating students who are highly prepared to pursue future higher education, together with enhanced leadership and advanced practice opportunities in nursing, have resulted in increased interest in CSUN and its Song-Brown training program among ADN students. Our experiences with our first Song-Brown grant have presented opportunities to further refine our support for SB trainees, applying a strategic, systems approach and evidence-based strategies to address social determinants of education that may prevent disadvantaged ADN students from pursuing their BSN degree. These strategies include peer and academic support and mentoring starting at the community college level; financial support; formal partnerships; holistic review-based admissions modifications; integrative training that includes academic preparation to pass the RN NCLEX exam; and clinical, professional, and leadership experiences. We will continuously evaluate and adjust our strategies to maximize performance improvement, with the goal of continuing to fast track the development of culturally and ethnically diverse BSN clinicians and leaders. In these ways, we will help advance the SB goal of increasing educational opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged minority backgrounds in order to improve access to high quality culturally competent registered nurse providers.