Strategies to Help Nurse Practitioner Students

¶ … Nurse Practitioners and Strategies the Students Can Adopt to Succeed in School Nursing students worldwide face quite a number of challenges in the course of undertaking their highly engaging and mind-intensive nursing practitioner programs. Non-completion of the practitioner program means that the student is not adequately prepared to practice as a nurse. This paper looks into the various challenges nursing practitioners undergo, and the ways or strategies to overcome them (Curtis, 2013).

Nursing Practitioner Challenges Financial Burden One of the main challenges identified by nursing students is lack of sufficient money; many of the students reveal that they have to work part time to make ends meet, apart from studying. For some of them, the work means that they cannot attend class, and thus have to extend their programs (Loftin, Newman, Dumas, Gilden, & Bond, 2012).

Lack of Moral and Emotional Support Lack of moral and emotional support has also been identified as a major barrier to nursing course completion, particularly, affecting the minority of the students. Lack of support is manifested in several spheres in the lives of nursing students, including discrimination and racism, loneliness and social isolation, and lack of family support (Loftin, Newman, Dumas, Gilden, & Bond, 2012). The lack of support often results in students feeling isolated and lonely, and thus devoid of the zeal needed to complete the program.

Discrimination Multiple studies have shown that nursing students have, in the past, been subjected to racism and discrimination by patients, hospital staffs, peers, and preceptors and faculty factors. For instance, according to Loftin et al. (2012), a Latina student reported being told by a male patient that he wanted to be taken care of by a white nurse; such comments can demoralize a nursing student, causing him or her to discontinue their practitioner studies or services.

Family Issues and Lack of Support Lack of family support is also an impediment, especially for male students, whose families do not fully support them because of stereotyping the profession as one that is meant for females only (Loftin, Newman, Dumas, Gilden, & Bond, 2012).

Lack of Academic/Mentoring Support In the past several years, some students have reported difficulty in comprehending course materials, whereas others have cited lack of support and direction as their main challenges; this could be because of the small numbers of faculty members dedicated to mentoring programs. Lack of direction results in demoralization, and thus, some students can discontinue their nursing learning programs (Loftin, Newman, Dumas, Gilden, & Bond, 2012).

Lack of Technical Support Lack of computer access and technological knowhow is one of the other major barriers to the successful completion of nursing practitioner studies. A number of the students reported not being able to have constant uninterrupted internet connection at home for studies, or informational searchers; some even lacked personal computers. Lack of access to PCs cannot not only contribute to failure, but also embarrassment of the student.

Cultural Barriers In a study conducted by Loftin and her colleagues (2012), the minority of the nursing students cited lack of exposure to cultural diversity as one of the issues that could be a barrier to their Caucasian peers. Some of the minority students in the study reported feeling frustrated by their peers' unlimited cultural exposure and competence. This can discourage both the minorities and the majority of the students from continuing with their studies.

Ways to Overcome Nursing Barriers and Challenges in Nursing Faculties It is recommended that medical students should be exposed to graduate nursing students at the onset of their educational endeavor. For instance, graduate nursing programs taking place in schools of medicine, should be at liberty to devise class sessions that allow them to engage with new medical students. Understanding NP role for these medical students can help to prevent the development of bad physician attitudes regarding NPs later on in the career (Clarin, 2007).

Student engagement and student centered approach is possible through identification of the ways in which to engage and balance engagement and academic load. This is going to help students stay connected to the clinical course objectives and allow them to design their educational path based on their individual needs and understanding. As clinical elements are able to influence student learning integration, clinical learning must be incorporated in the curriculum. To achieve this, nurse educators can integrate student engagement approaches to clinical courses, implement and monitor them to evaluate their effectiveness.

Group students engaging in reflective activities and promoting learning as part of the group is going to positively impact learning. Creating an atmosphere that enables students to learn, guarantees students understand what is demanded of them and gives the students the chance to learn via acting and doing, where they can offer feedback from peers and lectures within a supportive and safe environment.

Faculty-student interaction allows engagement of students taking more than one clinical courses to working together in enhancing their outcomes in new clinical learning setting (D'Souza, Venkatesaperumal, Radhakrishnan & Balachandran, 2013). Create financial assistance programs that lead to increased student welfare as it contributes to educational advancement amid nursing students. A number of studies have shown that students who receive financial support are more likely to advance their education. Thus, financial support for Nurse practitioner students is essential in easing their learning (Bellfield, 2010).

Policy makers should come up with more non-conventional ways of allowing students to earn nursing degrees. As noted, quite a number of students don't complete the nursing degree because they cannot pay for it; policymakers should look for ways to cut the tuition fees or provide cheaper alternative modes of education e.g. the ADNs who are community-educated and don't incur the kind of expenses associated with a 4-year BSN degree.

Policymakers should also provide more money for more linkages between universities, community colleges and practice settings to bridge or strengthen.