Nursing Workforce Development (NWD) - Description: The Nursing Workforce Development (NWD), HRSA-26-095, award will provide Pittsburg State University (PSU), Pittsburg, Kansas, with essential funding to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who enroll in and graduate from the Irene Bradley School of Nursing (IRBSON). The PSU/NWD will carry out a program to recruit and retain students in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program for pre-licensure BSN students and associate degree registered nurses in the RN to BSN track also completing the BSN degree. The project focuses on the need to provide support for 46 of the 244 primarily disadvantaged pre-licensure BSN and RN to BSN students each year, with the goal of recruiting, retaining, and graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds facing socioeconomic barriers. The PSU/NWD proposed services include implementing a comprehensive systems approach to make disadvantaged students aware of nursing as a viable career pathway and then recruiting, educating/training, retaining, and graduating the population group served, which are full-time disadvantaged students. The NWD project will provide academic support services such as tutoring, counseling, and supplemental instruction in our evidence-based remediation program, the Intensive Assessment, Advisement, and Evaluation (IAAE) program to promote academic success. An overwhelming majority of PSU undergraduate nursing students are from disadvantaged backgrounds and are at risk of poor completion and success; nonetheless, PSU has an exemplary record of success. The PSU/NWD project will increase recruitment and retention of faculty and preceptors to provide student mentorship and enhance learning environments by recruiting faculty from the same disadvantaged backgrounds as students who are recruited. The PSU/NWD project will enhance academic, social, and financial support to increase educational success for nursing students from disadvantaged backgrounds through student support services: Gorilla Gateway, Academic Success Workshops, the Writing Center, Peer-Tutoring, and preceptorships. The PSU/NWD uses evidence-based strategies such as pipeline programs from seven community colleges and comprehensive student support services at PSU. The PSU/NWD is located in rural and medically vulnerable areas in the State of Kansas, plus contiguous 24 counties in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas and will provide RNs to better serve the needs of these same communities served in the region by the IRBSON. Clinical partnership agreements are in place with Mercy Hospital Pittsburg, Pittsburg, KS; Girard Medical Center (GMC), a critical access hospital, Girard, KS; the Community Health Center of SEK (CHC/SEK) Pittsburg, KS, with its chain of 19 clinics; the Crawford County Health Department, Pittsburg, KS; Freeman Health System, Joplin, MO; and Northeastern Tribal Health System (NHTS), Miami, OK. The IRBSON collaborates with SEK community college nursing programs, as well as community colleges in the neighboring states of Missouri and Oklahoma, to facilitate seamless articulation from the associate degree to the baccalaureate degree; academic agreements are in place with seven community colleges as a pipeline program. One gap and unmet need the IRBSON will address includes increasing the number of students in each cohort of the generic/traditional/pre-licensure BSN program from 95 to 120 seats during the next four years of this grant cycle. This proposal requests a Funding Preference (Qualification 3, practice collaboration with a local health department), the Crawford County Health Department, Pittsburg, KS. It is noted the PSU/NWD also meets the other qualifications of “substantially benefits rural populations” and “substantially benefits medically vulnerable populations”, as our as our partners’ clinical training sites are in areas serving rural populations and medically underserved areas as defined by HRSA.
