DigitalCommons@UNMC

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  Asking Before Accessing

  Jennifer Baumert and Carly Hornig

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  Embracing Technology as the Extension of Nursing Practice to Enhance the Patient Experience

  Liz Raabe and Brandon Fleharty

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  Analytic Appraoch to Determining Causes of Graduate Student Attrition

  Cheryl Thompson

  Student data is collected for a variety of uses from application to graduation. Data is most often collected and stored in a fashion that supports single student data retrieval or mass processing of data, for uses such as preparation for graduation. Because of this, retrieving data for use in analytic reports and for problem solving across cohorts of students is often more difficult. Student services staff may have difficulty explaining to technology staff the nuances required to meet their data needs, particularly when multiple individual queries are needed to reach an answer. One such example is identifying the circumstances leading to graduate student attrition. Personal issues out of the control of the academic institution often lead to attrition. Other reasons stem from organizational policies or procedures that do not optimize chances for student success, or from a failure to advise a student on strategies to maximize their chance of success. The purpose of this poster is to provide the viewer analytic approaches used to evaluate potential cause of graduate student attrition and intervention strategies to address them. This poster will walk the viewer through a step by step process for obtaining data needed to answer student attrition questions. Hypotheses explored with these analyses included the following a) specific courses taken during the first semester, b) starting semester (fall, spring, summer), c) poor grades versus voluntary withdrawal, and d) the role of leave of absences in program withdrawal among others. Implications for the Future of Nursing Practice Student attrition has consequences for the individual, the institution, the community and nursing practice in general. Graduate students who do not graduate have spent time, energy and monetary resources with a less than desirable outcome. Institutions who admit but do not graduate students lose tuition for remaining courses that cannot be replaced and do not obtain a valuable alumnus. The community suffers from the loss of an additional graduate prepared practitioner. An organization that understands the potential reasons for student attrition patterns is better positioned to develop strategies to improve student success. Outcomes/Data as Appropriate The process to be described was successfully used by a graduate specialty group to identify a probable cause of observed student attrition and to develop a strategy to address the relevant issue. Notes: All data on poster is fabricated.

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  Meaningful Measurement of Diversity Initiative Outcomes

  Cheryl Thompson

  Diversification of students graduating from Nebraska colleges and schools of nursing is essential to providing a diverse healthcare workforce. Diversity related strategic plans typically include goals expressed using terms such as “increase”, “improve”, or “enhance” the diversity of their applicant pools or graduates. Less common is the practice of providing specific quantitative goals for setting or measuring progress towards expressed goals. This session will demonstrate a method for evaluating current diversity of students or graduates, setting concrete, measurable goals or benchmarks, and evaluating the outcome of diversity initiatives. Participants will take home a detailed tool for determining if recruitment, admission, or student support processes have a disparate impact on members of any disaggregated group of individuals based on gender, race, or other category of interest. These data will provide a basis for understanding the current status and setting measurable goals for the future. This is a methodological presentation. Presentation of “outcomes” is not applicable. Sample data sets will be discussed.