Recruiting underrepresented groups into nursing is a priority in the United States, including at California State University Channel Islands. After all, nurses are more effective when they are members of the community they serve, according to the University.
It’s why the CSUCI nursing program has established several initiatives that contribute to the diversity of the workforce. That diversity is helpful because even health care professionals who have worked with many different people may not be as effective as members of those communities, said Lynette Landry, chair of the nursing program. She saw this as a nurse in San Francisco.
“The person who walks in who has a similar background — there’s that connection between the patient and the nurse,” Landry said. “Although I thought I was culturally sensitive, I understood that I didn’t understand this person’s lived experience. I couldn’t relate to them often on a level that I needed to.”
Landry’s specialty is community health nursing and, in the years she worked as a nurse, followed by the 20 or so years she’s been teaching, she’s talked about inequities.
“The pandemic really put the spotlight on what we in the profession have known for years,” she said. “From certain racial groups, all struggle with health disparities and inequities. It’s provided an impetus for change: to address this and really focus on the root causes of the inequities and the disparities we’re seeing.”
CSUCI nursing program administrators realized they needed to take out parts of the admissions process that reflected privilege, Landry said. One of those parts involved relying heavily on an applicant’s grade point average.
“That isn’t always a good metric to use,” she said. “We look at a lot of other things. Language ability might be one of them. Residency is one we look at, as we do this process of interviewing. Somebody might look good on paper, but critical thinking and problem solving are important. That seems to really have helped increase the diversity of our population.”
The school gives precedence to resident applicants, Landry said. That matters because students are more likely to work locally after they graduate.
“I’ve heard from the people who hire our students,” she said. “They’re saying it’s making an impact in the care they’re able to provide to the community. They’re from that community, they grew up in that community, and they want to be employed in that community.”
Beyond admitting more diverse students, supporting them throughout their education is crucial.
“We have a lot of built-in mechanisms to support the student to graduate,” Landry said. “We have a really robust peer mentor program. Senior students help mentor junior students. We know the first couple of semesters are most difficult. Having a mentor who has a similar background to you really helps with that.”
CSUCI has also focused on increasing the diversity of the faculty because the program can retain more students when they learn from someone they can relate to, Landry said. Students who are struggling can also receive coaching, which is particularly helpful for those who are the first in their families to attend college.
With CSU Channel Islands’ focus on understanding student backgrounds and supporting them, it has a retention rate of about 98%, Landry said. And the faculty members who share their real-life experiences help students make it to graduation.
“They help them know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and know what might be achievable for them,” Landry said.
