Recruiting for the next class of nurses

By: Brittany Vice

Current and past students are valuable recruiting resources. The summer months give students unique opportunities to recruit high schoolers due to a different class schedule. The schedule change allows time to volunteer and earn service learning hours for some of our students that may not be available at other times throughout the year. This benefits our students as well as the prospective students.

One of the recruitment events that the School of Nursing (SON) participates in during the summer season is Mosaic. This event allows prospective students to learn about all seven UMMC campuses across a week in June or July. Mosaic is a campus-wide recruitment event by Dr. Dan Coleman and the School of Medicine. It focuses on the recruitment of minority and underrepresented students who are interested in health sciences or health science-related fields. Dr. Marilyn Harrington heads up the SON portion of the event, as the assistant dean for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Faculty and staff involved with the DEI committee also play an important role in the event, as they offer insight into nursing as a whole and how representation within nursing matters.

One of the events that takes place during Mosaic is a social hour. Each night as the students wind down for the evening, the school hosting the students for the day will oversee the event. We use this time to let some of our students meet with prospective high school students. The SON students lead a couple of games, allowing prospective students to get to know each other while having fun. The social hour and games allow the prospective students to interact with our current students, who can offer real-time experience and perspective as nursing students at UMMC.

This peer interaction is extremely important when recruiting new students. Prospective students want to know the details of what being a student in our programs is like, and our students can provide that information for them in a more personalized, relaxed setting. While the social hour is only a one-hour event, the connections made within a short time can make a big difference for a prospective student. The event also allows current students to develop strong interpersonal and leadership skills. It is a win for both current and prospective students!