Honors and Nursing: Reasons for Enrollment, Persistence, and Withdrawal.

BACKGROUND: The intertwining of honors within collegiate nursing education can be rewarding and challenging for students. This study examined why students enroll in honors, why students persist in honors, why some students withdraw from honors, and what resources are beneficial to honors success. METHOD: An online survey was sent to 130 nursing students enrolled in an honors program at one midwestern university. RESULTS: Forty-six nursing students completed the survey. Students indicated they enrolled in honors programs to attend classes with fewer students, to achieve Honors College Distinction, and to gain skills in professionalism and leadership. Reasons for withdrawal from honors included lack of time, increased workload, and added stress. CONCLUSION: Nursing students face many challenges in successful completion of an honors program. The results from this study led to the development of Honors and Nursing: A Supplemental Honors Nursing Guidebook for Honors Student Success, a resource for nursing honors students at the university. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(6):333-336.].

Collaborating With Rural Practice Partners to Provide a Primary Care Experience for Prelicensure Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND: Prelicensure nursing education has generally emphasized acute care; however, as primary care changes in the United States, academia must transform. The national call for transforming primary care requires innovation in the education of prelicensure nursing students. PROBLEM: To ensure future RNs can function in the primary care setting and assume enhanced roles within the interprofessional team, prelicensure nursing students need to be exposed to primary care. A key barrier to providing this essential education is the lack of partnerships with primary care facilities. APPROACH: The purpose of this project was to collaborate with rural practice partners to provide a primary care clinical experience for prelicensure nursing students. OUTCOMES: Collaboration between academic-practice partners to develop a clinical experience for prelicensure nursing students allowed exposure to the role of RNs in rural primary care. CONCLUSIONS: By sharing the process for planning the clinical experience, other interested academic institutions may replicate similar opportunities.