Students who think they want to be nurses can now start in their freshman year as nursing intended.
Once they are accepted into the program, they are separated into preclinical and clinical. The idea is to get them into the program faster, said Minerva Gonzales, interim nursing program director, associate dean for the College of Health Sciences and Human Performance and associate professor of nursing.
“… We have a high population of first-gen students here at UTPB,” Gonzales said.
She added that she was a first-generation student herself.
“We have identified that we can we can lose some of our students very early on in their freshman year. Sometimes they just find going to college is actually a little more difficult than they realize, or the science classes are a little bit tougher than they thought they might be. By bringing them into the program, we can actually support them from the get-go and that’s really what we want to do here. We want to promote student success,” Gonzales said.
She added that it has worked well so far.
“We have a Best Coach in place, so we’ve put a lot of different things in place and it’s all just to help support our students,” Gonzales said.
BEST COACH stands for Becoming Excellent Students Transition Creating Opportunities and Careers Healthcare.
She said nursing students used to get accepted in their junior year. Now they take them right after high school.
“They might not start their nursing courses yet, but we’re going to provide the support from our School of Nursing right at the beginning,” Gonzales said.
Students start with general education courses just like everyone else and may begin nursing courses second or third semester.
Gonzales said they get a mix of students that are right out of high school and non-traditional.
“… Some are transferring from other colleges; some are right out of high school; some have been working for the last 10 years and decided, you know what, I think I want to be a nurse. … We’ve really opened up the door to everyone so that we can meet them where they are, and help them find their path to being a nurse. That’s what we want,” she added.
Nursing intended program started last spring.
“… I think our program has just appealed to more students because they know that they can come in sooner. They don’t have to complete all of their prerequisites before getting to us. We want to help them through those courses,” Gonzales said.
If students find that nursing isn’t for them, they can opt out fairly easily.
“We all have advisees and so we asked them, Okay, so if nursing isn’t for you, let’s look at what other options you have because it happens. We really try to help them find that that new path,” Gonzales said.
She added that she has done just about everything in nursing — medical-surgical, oncology and home health to name a few.
“Nursing is a profession that gives you the opportunity to do something different without having to completely change. It’s, quite honestly, just been a wonderful journey. I’m very proud to be a nurse. I think anyone who knows me would say yeah, she is. I’m just thankful that I’ve been able to help people. I’m now helping students who are going to help people. I love what I do,” Gonzales said.
