Nursing Education Administrators' Perceptions of the Recruitment and Retention of African American Male Nursing Students

The present descriptive study obtained nursing education administrators perceptions about the use and effectiveness of recruitment and retention strategies for African American male nursing students as compared to those strategies used for all nursing students in their nursing programs. A survey based on a review of the literature was developed by the researcher. The survey was mailed to 241 baccalaureate degree nursing education administrators in the 16 states and District of Columbia, Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) region with a response rate of 39.3 %. Descriptive analysis of each strategy on the survey was calculated to determine use and effectiveness. Paired samples t-tests were performed for the total recruitment strategies for African American male nursing students and all nursing students and for the total retention strategies for African American male nursing students and all nursing students. Narrative comments were clustered and categorized. Seven findings from this descriptive study were reported. The discrete data reported in this study showed that few African American male nursing students were admitted to the baccalaureate degree nursing schools in the study in the year 2004 (M = 1.99, SD = 3.93) and even fewer graduated in that same year (M = .75, SD = 1.27). This study also 2 found that nursing education administrators used and perceived as effective for recruiting African American male nursing students, four strategies A paired samples t-test showed statistical significance (p < .01) in the sample group's perceptions of the effectiveness of the strategies for recruiting African American male nursing students and their perceptions of the effectiveness of the strategies for recruiting all nursing students. This study found that nursing education administrators used and perceived as effective for retaining African American male nursing students eight strategies. A paired samples t-test showed statistical significance (p < .05) in the sample group's perceptions of the ...