Nurses' use of tuition waivers: one university's experiences

Although the nursing literature documents the benefits of collaboration between academic and practice settings, the benefits of rewarding clinical preceptors and their organizations has not been examined. In Fall 1996, a large urban public university in New England implemented a program awarding tuition waivers to individual preceptors and clinical agencies who had made significant contributions to the education of nursing students. Three years after implementation, the program was evaluated to determine the extent nurse preceptors and clinical agencies used tuition waivers to assist nurses to enroll in a degree-granting program. Slightly more than one third (36.6 per cent) of the 82 vouchers awarded for a course waiver of tuition and fees were used by 24 nurses. Of the 24 nurses, 12 (50 per cent) were matriculating in the University degree-granting program when they used the voucher. Only one nurse, however, who took her first course on the campus with a voucher, subsequently enrolled in the graduate nursing program during the study period. J Prof Nurs 17:147-150, 2001.