Leveling EBP content for undergraduate nursing students.

Integration of evidence into practice is an essential outcome for baccalaureate nursing students in this era of health care reform. Cultivation of a spirit of inquiry and appreciation for the role of evidence in shaping nursing practice is central to the development of requisite knowledge and skills. A baccalaureate nursing program curricular redesign placed a higher emphasis on evidence-based practice. The evidence-based practice focus of the undergraduate curriculum is a sequence of 3 undergraduate research courses designed to prepare the graduate to identify, locate, read, and critically appraise evidence at the individual study, systematic review, and clinical practice guideline levels. This curriculum lays the foundation for evidence-based practice in the clinical arena and in graduate nursing programs.

Improving nursing school diversity through use of a group admission interview.

Nursing student diversity is a priority of the University of North Florida School of Nursing, but faculty members found that the prelicensure track admission process favored students with high grade point averages (GPAs) and eliminated many potentially good students, including minorities. Adding an interview to the admission process resulted in acceptance of highly qualified students while giving deserving students, including minority students with good but lower GPAs, the opportunity to enter the program. The change in the admission process increased minority admissions from a low of 2% to as high as 25%. Neither the overall attrition rate nor the licensure examination pass rate has been adversely affected.

Practice and education: partnering to address the perioperative nursing shortage.

With the growing shortage of nurses in the workforce, perioperative leaders are facing a significant challenge in recruiting new nurses who are committed to perioperative nursing. One medical center in northern Florida developed a successful summer externship program to introduce nursing students to the perioperative environment. The program incorporates both didactic and clinical experiences. Students who complete the program are better prepared and motivated to choose a career in perioperative nursing. The retention rate for nurses from the externship program who were hired into the OR in which the program was conducted was 89% after two years.