Nursing Students on the Border During A Pandemic

Recruitment, admission and retention of diverse nursing students are needed to ensure success, positively impact healthcare outcomes and relieve the nursing shortage. To ensure success in accelerated nursing programs, minority students need a variety of financial and academic support services. Nursing students are faced with multiple challenges, compiled with social determinants of health. Conditions arise that interfere with the person's ability to be successful beyond the personal, familial, academic, and social environments. Schools of nursing have the obligation and opportunity to provide competent nurses to care for the community. The challenge for nursing students on the border during a pandemic came in the offering of clinical encounters. Multiple opportunities were discovered and implemented for students during the pandemic including town hall meetings and “in progress” enrollment. A new approach in the delivery of course content and clinical experiences were developed. Recognizing and highlighting student needs during the current healthcare environment led to innovative ways in addressing the challenges nursing students faced during a pandemic on the border of the Southwest United States