Evaluation of the Nurses Caring for Older Adults Young Scholars Program

There is a "perfect storm" brewing in nursing. We are faced with a growing number of older patients, while at the same time nurses with expertise in gerontological nursing are aging and retiring. This critical shortage is most evident for nurses with research-intensive preparation needed to replenish actual and anticipated nurse faculty vacancies across the United States, especially those in underrepresented minority groups. We describe one solution to this problem; the Nurses Caring for Older Adults Young Scholars Program (YSP) that selects promising, ethnically diverse students and offers them a 1- to 3-year mentorship experience with the focus on students continuing to PhD studies on completion of their basic nursing studies. The YSP has mentored 15 prelicensure students with an identified interest in gerontological nursing research, with 8 young scholars (53%) going on to pursue doctoral studies. Program elements are described as well as philosophical and practical challenges of program implementation. Formative evaluations including student and faculty perceptions of the program as well as summative evaluation including admission success rate, student products, and progression in the doctoral program are discussed. Students indicate that establishing a strong mentor relationship with opportunities to participate in their mentor's research activities leading to the generation of a commitment to a research topic is the strongest factor in young scholars following through with enrollment into a doctoral program. A synergistic outcome of the YSP was the development of a critical mass of students interested in pursuing PhD studies that further extended the impact of the program.