Traditional and Nontraditional Nursing Students: Piloting a BSN Mentor Program

Abstract

In looking at a current BSN class today, one will find many different types of students. There are those coming back to school, having realized their current career was not for them, there are those freshly out of high school that know they want to become nurses, and there is a plethora of those in between. The beauty of these differences though, is the way in which the student with the previous career, and the student with no career experience at all can teach each other extremely valuable lessons. These lessons can be regarding study habits, time management, social support, or most any other factor. And these lessons are needed. Due to the difficulty of the nursing curriculum at any university, there are many students that, despite past academic successes, struggle to get their footing. Oftentimes, however, the group that seems to have an overall steady footing is that of the nontraditional student.