Minority nursing students: strategies for retention.

The development of a nursing workforce that reflects the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the nation's population continues to be a major challenge. Many minority disadvantaged nursing students face special challenges when successfully navigating their way and transitioning into the nursing curriculum. They need developmental or remedial courses (math, reading, and writing) and they face communication barriers and financial difficulties. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify the learning needs of minority nursing students and to implement a retention program to help them succeed. To determine the relationship between enrichment hours and course performances, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted using SPSS. While students who passed their courses had greater mean hours of enrichment than students who did not pass, the differences were not statistically significant. Students who graduated spent more hours in enrichment than students who did not graduate. Graduating students spent an average of 113 hours in enrichment during their program compared to students who did not graduate, and who spent an average of only 50 hours in enrichment. This difference was statistically significant [F = 44.50; df 1.98; p < .001].

Aging in Haiti: toward an international nursing response.

In this column Orem's self-care deficit model and Holzkamp's critical learning theory are used to discuss the story of an older adult Haitian woman with an interview with a Haitian nurse leader, Mme. Suze N'Lemba. Older adults in Haiti today are seen as a group at very high risk due in part to the conditions in the country, and they are in need of considerable guidance in nursing. However the current number of nurses and nurse educators in Haiti, and the extremely limited resources there, make it unlikely that the vast majority of these individuals will receive what they need. Therefore what is needed at this time are international nursing partnerships and assistance.