903 - Achieving the Dream Toward a More Diverse Nursing Workforce

There is no argument that diversity is a strength. Representation matters, whether it is nurses promoting health or faculty providing leadership for career expansion. Join us for this interactive session as we reflect on lessons learned from previous workforce diversity grants, embracing a grow your own model to expand the diversity of our nursing faculty. Hear the voices of graduates who will talk about how opportunities changed their career trajectory. As we embark on another grant to Achieve the Dream in promoting workforce diversity, we will share plans to move forward the opportunities for the success of under-represented minority students.

Providing a diverse nurse workforce for the citizens of Philadelphia is an important element for the nursing programs in the city. As the only associate degree program in Philadelphia and a community college, we feel particularly charged with this responsibility. The department is fortunate to have a population of students diverse in race, ethnicity, age, and background. The average age of students is 25, making them more likely to have external responsibilities such as work, familial and child support. These expanded responsibilities, coupled with significant learning and skill loss due to delayed post-secondary entry, can greatly influence their ability to succeed without the proper support and resources to engage in a rigorous nursing program. In addition, they have not had previous interactions with nurse leaders who looked like them. Providing social, human and financial capital for successful outcomes and growth as nurse leaders has been the impetus for these projects.

This session will include various interventions used in previous projects to promote the academic success and leadership growth in under-represented and educational and economically disadvantaged students. A focus on a current Achieving the Dream Workforce Diversity grant will focus on how these past interventions were assessed and revised to address the challenges of a new post pandemic group of students. The interventions provided in the Achieving the Dream Workforce Diversity grant address the identified barriers for successful outcomes identified previously and provide financial, human and social capital to bolster outcomes. Direct financial capital to students provides supplies and books to partially decrease the economic burden often cited as a barrier to success. Human capital will provide support through mentoring and tutoring targeted to address academic content issues, role transition, leadership and time management. Social capital will provide development into the nursing profession and funding in this domain will include financing attendance at a professional conference, with the opportunity to have experience presenting at the conference. Interventions will also include continuous assessment of the project including qualitative and quantitative data to inform any needed revision.