Social determinants and educational barriers to successful admission to nursing programs for minority and rural students

17^th World Congress on Clinical Nursing & Practice

August 29-30, 2018 | Zurich, Switzerland

Sharon Elizabeth Metcalfe

Western Carolina University, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

In 2010, the Institute of Medicine made a recommendation in the future of nursing report to diversify the student population of the health care professions in order to provide increasing minority providers to meet the culturally competent needs of the growing multicultural populations of the United States (Institute of Medicine, 2010). The nursing network and careers and technology nurse mentoring program provides a nursing mentor to underrepresented ethnic minority and educationally disadvantaged students a significant scholarship and stipend for tuition and monthly living expenses. Ethnically diverse and rural students have lifelong familial and geographical educational barriers that prevent them from succeeding. There are a plethora of major environmental and familial factors that need to be addressed by society for these students to be successful. These factors include improvement of county schools by financial support, improving the home environment through social supportive services and implementing improved parentâ??child bonding with nurse family partnerships. Nursing faculty must embrace new approaches for increasing the number of ethnically diverse nursing providers through novel admission criteria and collaborative cohort peer-mentoring programs.

Biography :

Sharon Elizabeth Metcalfe is an Associate Professor at Western Carolina University in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. Her previous academic appointments have been as Interim Director of Nursing and also as the Dean of Nursing for a private college. She has been an Educational Grants Researcher with colleges and hospitals. Currently, she is serving on the Board of North Carolina Nursing Association Foundation. Her research agenda is on global leadership development and mentoring transformational nurse leaders. She has been serving as the Program Director of the NN-CAT Program (Nursing Network-Careers and Technology), a national program that provides scholarships, stipends and personal mentors to underrepresented ethnic minority students.