Recruiting and retaining minorities in nursing education.

Increasing nursing education opportunities for individuals from minority and/or disadvantaged backgrounds is the purpose of this project. Activities included the implementation of programs to enhance preentry preparation, retention, cultural competence and financial support. Intense recruitment strategies were targeted to seniors from high schools in Macon County and contiguous counties, the counties where most students currently enrolled at Tuskegee reside. The target population also included health professions majors in some of Alabama's historic black universities. Faculty cultural development workshops were conducted in the areas of self-assessment of cultural competency, and the influence of culture on student learning and teaching strategies. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to evaluate the outcomes of this project. As a result of these activities; enrollment has increased 150%, and the retention rate between the pre-professional (freshman/sophomore levels) and professional phase has increased. Additionally, the informal and formal data collected through the implementation of project's activities revealed psychosocial and health-related problems that could have an impact on students' ability to learn and to realize economic and career goals.