EVALUATION OF A SUPPLEMENTARY RETENTION PROGRAM FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN BACCALAUREATE NURSING-STUDENTS

This study evaluated the Minority Academic Advising Program (MAAP), a supplementary retention program established for African-American stude nts enrolled in a southern state health sciences university's baccalau reate nursing program. The evaluation method merged a quasi-experiment al with a time-series design. A group of 114 black students were inclu ded in the study. A comparison group consisting of 608 nursing student cohorts who were predominantly white was incorporated for control pur poses. Although the students who were MAAP participants had significan tly lower SAT scores, reduced Pre-Admission GPAs, and included a conti ngent of 11 students at high risk of failing, the following enhancemen ts were identified: their retention-to-graduation rate increased 5.3 p ercentage points to 97.1%, their nursing program GPA increased nearly one-quarter letter grade, their time-persisted-in-program increased 0. 7 months, and their nursing board examination pass rate increased 15 p ercentage points.