This proposed project has four specific aims (the 4 Rs). To Recruit and Retain a diverse student nurse population, to ensure Readiness to practice in acute care settings, and to Revise curricular programs to emphasize awareness and management of the effects of social determinants of health on patient outcomes. Aim 1: Recruitment of prospective students and nurse educators with an emphasis on diversifying the nursing workforce. Aim 2: Retention of pre-nursing and nursing students at a state public university. Aim 3: Readiness to practice through a program focusing on enhancing the undergraduate nursing program experience to ensure competency and confidence in practice entry in acute care settings upon graduation. Aim 4: Revision of our nursing school curriculum to address principles of the Social Determinants of Health with the goal of improvement in patient outcomes and health literacy, and reduction in health inequities. Evidence has shown that client trust and patient outcomes are improved when health care professionals are representative of the natural variations within the population. There is also an ongoing, significant nursing shortage making it imperative that academic and clinical collaborations are in place to ensure readiness to practice for new graduate nurses. Evidence shows that clinical, classroom and simulation experiences that emphasize concepts from social determinants of health prepare undergraduate nurses for appropriate and inclusive care of diverse populations. In addition, literature is abundant with strategies to recruit and retain nurses of diverse backgrounds which includes mentoring, academic, social and personal advising, and supportive academic environments. Objectives of this project include: 1) Recruitment of diverse nursing students through development of a school pipeline in collaboration with school districts and local hospitals to facilitate awareness of the nursing profession by offering shadowing experiences
and mobile simulation experiences. Additional efforts to increase diverse nursing faculty include national recruitment efforts and development of nurse educator fellowships to assist in degree completion, research efforts or faculty development goals; 2) Retention of pre-nursing students through collaboration with our science department to integrate an evidence-based peer led team learning model that is well-known to impact student success; 3) Retention of students by increasing resources for our student success team within the nursing program as well as our already established and successful Student Nurse Achievement Program (SNAP); 4) Enhanced Readiness to practice through collaborations with hospitals located in underserved areas to foster innovative clinical experiences that involve a nurse preceptor model. Additional modifications to final semester courses will also include components of new graduate orientation based on input from collaborating hospitals to decrease orientation time into nursing practice; 5) Revision of nursing curriculum to fully integrate social determinants of health into class, clinical and simulation experiences.