The Alaska project focuses on the recruitment and retention of rural nurses—primary workforce development concerns in a state where the majority of hospitals are located in small, often remote towns accessible only by air or boat. The project approaches these problems with two goals. First, it seeks to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the nursing workforce by taking to scale a student support program for Alaska Native nursing students in a geographically remote and ethnically Yupik region. Second, it is strengthening the competency of nurses to provide patient-centered care by developing and implementing rural generalist nursing competencies and preceptorships.
The services provided to the student cohort in Bethel, Alaska are based on the Recruitment and Retention of Alaska Native Students into Nursing (RRANN) model which has operated successfully for several years in Anchorage. They include academic monitoring, tutoring, monthly meetings, clinical rotations and stipends. The partnership is looking at ways to support rural Native students beyond RRANN.
The preceptorship component of the project includes identifying rural generalist nursing competencies and developing, field-testing, and implementing preceptorship competencies in new nurse orientation. Several hospitals in the state use these competencies in their preceptorship programs.
The project brings together a mix of funding, institutional and program partners that is unique in Alaska. Although some of the partners may have had limited relationships prior to this project, PIN has greatly expanded the partnership playing field, both in terms of numbers and geographic scope.
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