Taking the Road Less Traveled: Redirecting Pre-Nursing Students into Other Helping Professions Beckie Croissant and Liz Osborn University of Northern Colorado

The Field of Nursing Fastest growing occupation in the United States Nurses make up the majority of the healthcare industry, and that number is going up, with 581,500 more nursing jobs expected by 2018 Reasons for high interest in nursing profession High starting salary Flexible schedules and locations Large range of career opportunities within the nursing field Ranked as one of the highest professions for honesty and ethics

The Problem: National High demand, competitive admission process, and limited faculty to teach courses and clinical placement sites In 2013, over 53,600 qualified nursing applicants were denied admission to a nursing program in the U.S.

The Problem : UNC High Demand Approximately 900 pre-nursing students of which about 300 enroll per year Around 250 returning pre-nursing students per year Typically we have at least twice as many qualified pre-nursing applicants each year than we can admit into the program In January 2014, our nursing program had 184 qualified applicants for 72 seats Competitive Admission Process Entirely GPA based In January 2014, the GPA cutoff for admission to the Nursing program was a 3.76

Loss of Students AY , 147 out of 296 (50%) pre-nursing freshman dropped out of the pre-nursing program after their first year *Totals are calculated from UNC’s in-state tuition and fees for the academic year ($7,366 per student) Of those 147, 1/3 changed their major and stayed at UNC (green) 2/3 left UNC resulting in the loss of approximately $722,000* annually in tuition and fees for UNC (blue)

The Plan The loss of our pre-nursing students led to the development of a retention and redirection effort at UNC called Bear-Way Bear-Way is an initiative within the College of Natural and Health Sciences that works in collaboration with the School of Nursing The program is designed to: Give pre-nursing students an additional layer of academic advising and support by meeting with a specialized advisor Discuss and develop potential parallel academic plans Help students to reach their goal of earning a bachelor's degree from UNC

Pre-nursing students are sorted into three tiers based upon their cumulative GPA Tier 1 - students who have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 to 4.0 Tier 2 - students who have a cumulative GPA of Tier 3 - students who have a cumulative GPA of 2.99 and below, and are considered our murky middle The Education Advisory Board (EAB) defines "The Murky Middle" as students who have mid-range GPAs between a 2.0 and 3.0 GPA. These students are at a higher risk of dropping out of college.

The Solution Bear-Way Advisor Targeted Campaigns One-on-One Meetings Tone is positive and encouraging Discuss "Why do you want to be a nurse?" Degree Works - GPA Predictor and What If Analysis SSC Platform - Major Explorer Coordinated Care Approach Other Discussion Topics

Pre-Nursing Advisor Works with all tiers in group and individual advising regarding Ways to be successful in college Study skills Time management Resources Ways to increase School of Nursing GPA Other nursing degree options Dual Enrollment program ADN-BSN Second Degree program Bear-Way program

The Results The Bear-Way program’s goal for the first year was to retain 10 percent of Tier 3 students. In AY , 143 Tier 3 students were invited to meet with the Bear-Way Advisor. Of those invited, 45 students participated 12 students changed their major (yellow) 31 stayed pre-nursing but started taking courses toward a new major (green) 2 left the institution (blue)

Feedback from Students and Parents Qualtrics Survey s I like how you put an effort into working with students who have lower than a 3.0 GPA. The Bear-Way advisor was very helpful. She helped me decide a major that most of my credits would transfer to. The Bear-Way advisor helped me from quitting [school] by helping me make a new course plan. It was very beneficial to me. Very beneficial in that it helped me discover other options for my academic career. After putting so much passionate work into the nursing program, it was nice to have an alternative so that I could stay on track academically. Thank you for meeting with my daughter yesterday. We all feel much better now that we have a solid plan going forward. Thank you so much for your help in developing a plan B (or C, D, E...I lost count) and for supporting me and other students like me in chasing our dreams. You are awesome and so important!

Our goal was to retain 10 percent (14 students). Through our retention and redirection efforts… We retained 22 percent (39 students) Resulting in $287,274 in revenue for UNC But more importantly, this positively impacted 58 students’ lives In addition, 19 Tier 1 and 2 students participated in the Bear-Way program All of which were retained resulting in an additional $139,954 in revenue for UNC Total of $427,228 in tuition and fee revenue

SUCCESS!

Contact Information Beckie Croissant, Student Services Specialist and Bear-Way Advisor (970) Liz Osborn, Pre-Nursing Academic Advisor (970)

References Gallup (2014). Americans Rate Nurses Highest on Honesty, Ethical Standards. Retrieved January 22, 2015 from Johnson and Johnson (2015). Why be a Nurse? Retrieved January 22, 2015 from Mullaney, T. (2014). Nursing Degree Programs Turned Away More Than 50,000 Qualified Applicants in 2013, Survey Finds. Retrieved January 22, 2015 from finds/article/331283/ US News (2014). Study: Income Gap Between Young College and High School Grads Widens. Retrieved January 19, 2015 from