A “Welcome Back, Nursing Students!” sign graces the entryway to the School of Nursing (SoN), as students enter its space from the connecting corridor to the Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC). The sign represents the SoN community’s eagerness to welcome those students already in the nursing major and those newcomers to the major—a group whose vitality and potential lie in its exceptionally diverse character.
Fall 2004’s incoming students collectively boast a mean GPA of 3.5, and approximately 66 percent of the entering students qualified for the school’s honors program. These statistics give credence to the strong academic preparation of the newcomers to meet the challenges of a flagship institution in the upper echelon of the nation’s nursing schools.
Of the more than 360 applicants who applied for fall 2004 entry, 144 students were admitted into the major. Those newly admitted hail from a potpourri of backgrounds and experiences—some have studied abroad; some have had prior experience in a health care environment; some are returning for a second degree, the first not being in nursing; one enrollee enters the nursing program with a PhD already in hand; and 19 are competent in a language other than English.
The incoming group provides the strongest rural or underserved representation from Wisconsin communities of any SoN class. Students from rural farm communities—being 5,000 people or less—constitute one-fourth of this year’s incoming class.
One distinctive feature of the 2004 incoming class is the increased population of male nursing students. This year, 13 percent of those newly admitted are male, compared with last year’s figure hovering around three percent. The percentage significantly surpasses the national rate of 8.4 percent currently.
Two incoming male students offered their views on choosing a major and profession heavily populated by females.
Joshua Favorite |
Joshua Hert |
“I always knew that I would work with some aspect of health care in my professional career," says Eagle River, Wis., native Joshua Favorite, “and the opportunities that nursing provide made it very appealing. … nursing is a dynamic … that offers direct, hands-on involvement in your work, which translates to an opportunity to make a difference in many a life.”
Favorite adds that increasing gender parity within schools of nursing would improve the shortage of available nurses:
“ … nursing is trying to field a team from a pool that only includes half of the potential nurses,” says Favorite, adding that the situation will most likely continue as long as society entertains outdated gender-role stereotypes.
Incoming student Joshua Hert from Sheboygan, Wis., became attracted to the nursing major, fueled by his tendency to believe that nurses “can do it all.”
Hert—who brushed briefly with fame this past summer when working in the Whistling Straits locker room at the PGA championships and meeting golf stars Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson—says that he likes being a minority in the field of nursing because he sticks out from the rest of the crowd.
“I hope that I can serve as a [role] model for future male students who are interested in health care by breaking the stereotype that only females are nurses.”
The 2004 undergraduate enrollment figures reflect a 23 percent rise over last year with a 68 percent growth over the last two years. This is a substantial increase over national standards, which reflect only a 16.6% growth in United States nursing school enrollment in 2003.
Katharyn May, dean of the School of Nursing, explains that expanding the bachelor’s program remains a critical priority. Although admissions have increased, she says, the growing shortage of nursing faculty significantly impedes national efforts to increase the capacity of the undergraduate program. More nurse educators are needed—numbers that May and colleagues are working to strengthen.
Meanwhile, welcoming the incoming nursing students—aka, the Class of 2006—to the SoN student body is something she views as a privilege and a golden opportunity.
“This is a unique class not only in the representation of men and those from rural communities, but in the significance of its members to be the first to receive instruction in the new Health Sciences Learning Center,” says May. “A new era marked by exceptional learning opportunities begins. Students are the reason we’re here. We’re very glad they are back.”
For more information on this story, contact Kathleen Freimuth by phone at 608 263-5160 or email kcfreimu@wisc.edu.