Nursing Spectrum Honors Students at NSNA Convention

By Donna Novak, RN, MSN, NPC
May 9, 2005

The mayor of Salt Lake City proclaimed the week of April 4-10, 2005, National Student Nurses’ Week, as more than 3,000 students and faculty from across the country assembled at the 53rd annual National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) convention. The convention’s theme, “Breaking the Mold: Breakthrough to Nursing,” celebrated the anniversary of an NSNA project established in 1965 to address the recruitment and retention of minority groups within the nursing profession.

Nursing Spectrum sponsored the Awards Ceremony, an evening some attendees referred to as “Oscar Night” at the convention. More than $100,000 in scholarships were awarded to nursing students through the Foundation of the National Student Nurses’ Association. Nursing Spectrum/ NurseWeek sponsored three scholarships this year. Recipients were Mary Alice Brink, Samford University — Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, Birmingham, Ala.; Shannon Fenner, Northcentral Technical College, Wausau, Wis.; and William Smith, Madisonville Community College, Madisonville, Ky.

The winners of the 2005 NSNA/ Nursing Spectrum Essay Contest were also honored at the event. This year’s essay question — “How would you encourage underrepresented populations to choose nursing as a career?” — reflected the convention’s theme. Grand prize winner Lynette Melby, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S.D., received a Nursing Spectrum continuing education tour to Scandinavia, a $1,000 travel stipend, and complimentary registration to the 2005 NSNA convention. Her essay, “Passion and Possibility,” challenges every nurse to encourage “just one person” from an underrepresented population to become a nurse.

Four other students were also recognized for their essays:

• First place: Kelly Kaufman, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky.
  http://www.nursingspectrum.com/StudentsCorner/StudentFeatures/Essay2005_Kaufman.htm
• Second Place: Shannon M. Fenner , Northcentral Technical College, Wausau, Wis.
  http://www.nursingspectrum.com/StudentsCorner/StudentFeatures/Essay2005_Fenner.htm
• Third Place: Martha Phillips , University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
  http://www.nursingspectrum.com/StudentsCorner/StudentFeatures/Essay2005_Phillips.htm
• Honorable Mention: Karen Crone , College of Lake County, Grayslake, Ill.
  http://www.nursingspectrum.com/StudentsCorner/StudentFeatures/Essay2005_Crone.htm

They received an award certificate, an American Express gift cheque, and the 2005 Nursing Spectrum Drug Handbook.

Melby’s unedited winning essay is printed below. The essays by the runners-up can be read by clicking the links above.

Passion and Possibility

First, you create the passion. Then you make it possible. Passion and possibility are the necessary elements in the creation of new nurses.

I am asking you to change your thinking. Instead of asking, “What can be done?” I want you to ask yourself, “What can I do?” What can one nurse do to encourage those from underrepresented populations to become nurses? It’s a valid question. The task seems overwhelming. Where do you start?

You start with one person at a time —one person. If each of us were successful in encouraging just one person from an underrepresented population to become a nurse, the ramifications for our profession would be huge.

How can you kindle a passion for nursing in a young person? By being a role model. In talking with nurses, many of them have personal memories of the moment they decided to become a nurse. One saw a nurse care lovingly for her ill grandmother and decided she wanted to help people that way, too. Another saw a flight nurse work quickly and efficiently in an emergency department to prepare an accident victim to be life-flighted to a trauma center. She watched as that nurse helped save a life, and she wanted to do that some day. An ill adolescent struggled with the difficulty and boredom of being hospitalized for weeks. What made his long hospitalization tolerable? The nurse who played video games with him when his duties slowed for the evening. This boy couldn’t wait until “his” nurse came through the door each night with his upbeat attitude. For small bits of time they talked sports, they talked video games — they talked.

The adolescent knew that he’d like to do for others some day what this nurse did for him.

As nurses, each one of us is an ambassador for our profession. We have the power to leave a positive image with potential future nurses as well as the power to leave a negative one. How many young people will become nurses if in their interaction with a nurse they see and hear only the negative? Exasperated sighs and rolling eyes leave a lasting impression — and not a good one. A positive impression, however, has the power to create a spark in an individual who may have never considered nursing as a career.

In your interactions with your patients and with the public, remember to never, never, never underestimate the power of an encouraging word. Some individuals may already have considered becoming a nurse, but they may need encouragement to help them take that first step. I’m an example: I was a volunteer at our local care center. One night a nurse said to me, “You’d make a good nurse.” I graduate in May. I am a personal example of what a small moment of encouragement can mean. Personal words of encouragement have power beyond measure.

As well as the opportunity to interact one-on-one with nursing recruits from underrepresented populations, you have the ability to share your love of nursing in your community. Contact area schools and ask if they need speakers on health topics or for a career day. With the permission of your facility, invite high school students from inner city schools to shadow you for a day. Teach first aid to scouting groups. Talk to Head Start students about hand washing and how to avoid spreading germs. Bring stethoscopes and let each child listen to his own heart. It’s magic such as this that will stay with a child who has never before had positive interactions with a nurse.

In other words, as a nurse, bring yourself to underrepresented populations instead of waiting until they come to you. The possibilities for sharing your passion for nursing with potential future nurses are many. However, now that you have created the passion in that future nurse, will it be possible for that student to reach his or her goal? Actually helping to create the possibility is important.

There are many loan, grant, and scholarship programs available to potential nursing students. That being the case, why are some populations still underrepresented in nursing? Having the programs in place is necessary, but making them known is also vital.

Information is power. Financing is available to most students, especially those from underrepresented populations, but this information must get into the hands of potential students. You can play an integral role in your community by making this information available.

If each nurse accepted the responsibility of actually getting information into the high school in his or her neighborhood, think of the possibilities that just one nurse could create. Think also of that inner city high school and those on our reservations. Because of tight budgets in our schools, high school guidance counselors are often overwhelmed. Many students are overlooked in the process and likely do not even know the financial possibilities that may be available to them. There are wonderful printed materials available, but those materials accomplish nothing if they are not made readily accessible to students. Get this information into your schools.

Another resource is the facility in which you work. Ask your facility if you can make information on nursing careers available in the waiting rooms and lobbies. Include information on resources for paying for nursing education. Help your facility sponsor a nursing open house and invite area students and their parents to come and learn more about nursing. Invite nursing schools to participate. Your facility may, with your urging, consider offering a partial nursing scholarship to an interested student from an underrepresented population.

What I’ve suggested each of us personally do to encourage individuals from underrepresented populations to become nurses are small, workable, practical steps, yet they are very powerful. I challenge all of us to take action to solve this dilemma. Don’t underestimate the personal touch.