Health start: An innovative pilot model promoting diversity in nursing education

Abstract

This article describes a pilot model for promoting diversity in prelicensure nursing education. The National League for Nursing calls on nursing education leadership to recruit, retain, and graduate diverse students to promote nursing diversity and decrease health disparities. Scaffolding contextualized learning through a learning community and "The Puente Project" bicultural and bilingual outreach guidelines were combined to create HealthStart. Retention rates increased by 23.5 percent in a predominately low socioeconomic, racially and ethnically diverse population. It was found that multiple modalities promote student success and diversity in prelicensure nursing education.