A new program that will attract new nursing students from a DeKalb County school to the University of Alabama-Birmingham is one step away from reality.
UAB’s Beth Stullenbarger received a three-year, $867,000 grant to get more minorities, rural students and first-generation college students into nursing.
She said minority nurses are needed in part because they’re more likely to return to underserved communities, but also because it’s important for health care providers to be able to relate to their patients.
“We know there is a tremendous shortage of nurses in this state and is about to get worse,†Stullenbarger said. “Our goal is to make sure the students who want to be nurses can get the academic background needed to become nurses.
“What we are particularly focused on are people who come from a disadvantaged background. We look at such criteria as students who would be first-year college graduates, schools where 50 percent or fewer of the students go to college, schools where 50 percent or more of lunches are subsidized or where schools have 50 percent or more students that use English as a second language programs. Those students would be our first priority.â€
To that end, Stullenbarger’s team will visit three Alabama high schools to urge students to consider nursing: Birmingham’s Carver High, Wilcox Central High School in the Black Belt and Collinsville High School in DeKalb County, where almost half of the students are Hispanic. Representatives will talk to students there about job opportunities and help them with tutoring and course selection so they’re ready for nursing school.
And Stullenbarger’s team has also started an enrichment program designed to help new nursing students stay in school — and, the team hopes, to stay in the state when they get their degree.
Stullenbarger said she is seeking approval from UAB’s Institutional Review Board before her team goes into Collinsville because she wants to make sure everything is approved before working with students under 18. She said five students will be selected from each high school.
“The overall purpose of the grant is to recruit nurses into the program,†Stullenbarger said. “We want to recruit nurses into the program, we want them to be successful and we want them to graduate.
“We will work with them for however long they are in the program. We want to work with the guidance counselor and principal to make sure they are working toward the goal.â€
The students selected will be paid a $50 per month stipend. She said her team wants to identify resources in the community, such as tutors, to help the students. The team will also identify nurses in the community to serve as mentors and UAB nursing students will be on hand to talk to students as well.
“Oftentimes, high school students and even students at UAB think they know they want to be nurses, but don’t know what it takes to be a nurse,†Stullenbarger said.
She said once the program lays its foundation, it will invite counselors from other schools to get more students involved.
“We’re going to invite anyone who is interested,†Stullenbarger said.
For now, the plan starts with Collinsville High School.
“As soon as we can get approval, I plan to contact the principal and counselor about when we can come,†Stullenbarger said. “We want to make sure everything is set with working with people.â€
And Collinsville Principal Donny Jones couldn’t be happier with the news.
“Our whole thing is getting them a diploma to start with,†Jones said. “Once we get that done, we move on to the next level. Since we are a diverse group here, we try to look at scholarships of that kind. It’s another option to help our kids out.â€
The federal government agrees, and stressed the urgency of meeting the shortage and increasing diversity in a report to Congress this year by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
“It will not be enough only to increase the supply” of registered nurses, the report reads. “What is needed is adequate numbers of qualified, culturally diverse nurses prepared to practice competently in an increasingly complex health care environment.”
-– The Associated Press contributed to this report
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