Recruitment and retention of associate degree nursing faculty.

Associate degree nursing (ADN) programs are influenced by many of the same factors affecting the recruitment and retention of nursing faculty in baccalaureate and graduate degree nursing programs. This article examines these factors along with strategies that have the potential to affect recruitment and retention. Factors affecting recruitment include the unique nature of the ADN educator role and salary. Factors affecting retention are salary, workload, and work hours. Beginning recruitment with students, while they are still enrolled in the program, and mentoring part-time clinical faculty are possible ways to recruit full-time faculty. Numerous initiatives designed to supplement the recruitment and retention efforts of individual nursing programs, developed by the National League for Nursing, are identified. Solutions to this shortage must be identified so there are adequate numbers of full-time faculty to achieve the goal of high-quality graduates who are committed to patient safety.

Retaining men in nursing program designed for women.

Men continue to represent a small percentage of the nursing workforce. Along with concerns regarding the nursing shortage are concerns that nursing should reflect the racial, ethnic, and gender characteristics of the population it serves. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the challenges male nursing students face and offer strategies to retain these students in educational programs traditionally designed for women.

Meeting the challenge of mobility in nursing education: one program's response.

Plans for the future include exploring linkages with baccalaureate programs, developing online offerings for courses at the ADN level, and tracking retention according to admission requirements. The department head has presented a proposal to the local BSN programs that will allow selected students in the ADN program to take one of their nursing courses at the RN-BSN level prior to graduation. A lead instructor at the ADN level is participating in a Title III grant to design online course offerings. A faculty member has been assigned the responsibility to track retention and develop a retention plan for the division. So far, we have recognized the following advantages of the new curriculum. 1) The liberal articulation for CNA and LPN means that these individuals can become registered nurses in less time. 2) Students have the opportunity to become credentialed at an earlier level and enter the workforce prior to becoming a registered nurse. 3) Implementation of the new curriculum has been a way to capitalize on college resources in order to maximize enrollment. In the past, some slots in the low enrollment NA and PN programs were not filled. As a result of the implementation of the new curriculum, we admitted a total of 65 (37%) more students in 2001 than we did in 2000 because we were able to fill available spaces in these low enrollment programs with ADN students. In a time of tight fiscal resources and increasing demands for healthcare providers, this multiple entry, multiple exit program provides an effective strategy for meeting the challenges confronting nursing education in the 21st century.