The Amarillo College Nursing Division has a time-tested history of producing in-demand nurses attuned above all to patient care. However, not all students of nursing complete the rigorous academic journey to a targeted end point.

In fact, the high rate of attrition among nursing students is of concern both statewide and beyond.

In a concerted effort to quell attrition among its nursing students, Amarillo College recently developed and launched a technology-equipped tutoring center featuring a welcome and somewhat unique blend of professional tutors, mandatory attendance for struggling students, and enthusiastic faculty buy-in.

The West Campus Tutoring Outreach Center is the brainchild of Dr. Richard Pullen, dean of nursing and director of the Associate Degree Nursing Program, and Dr. Deborah Vess, vice president of academic affairs. It is funded in part by a Perkins Grant obtained through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. It employs professional tutors with nursing backgrounds.

While presently located in temporary quarters within Jones Hall, the Center it will move to a permanent home in nearby Building D once renovations there are complete. But no matter its location, Pullen is pleased by what he has seen thus far and believes attrition rates among student nurses might soon be halved.

“Our purpose is to increase student success so that we can provide more high-quality nurses to meet the needs of our community,” Pullen said. “Our attrition is simply too high.”

Last fall, AC’s Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program experienced a 15.1 percent rate of attrition, which pleasingly tapered to 11.1 percent in spring 2015.

“With the addition of the Tutoring Outreach Center, our goal is to decrease the fall attrition rate to below 7 percent,” Pullen said. “I think the Center will have a significant impact on our attrition rates and that our goal is within reach.”

Nursing students who fall short of passing on any given examination—the division’s benchmark is 75 percent—are given a “prescription” for tutoring by their instructor. Those students must then attend mandatory tutoring before becoming eligible to take subsequent exams. 

“Every student has different needs, so first we study the prescription to pinpoint where we can make a difference,” said Anna Min Esquibel, director of the Tutoring Outreach Center. “Of course, being nurses, we then apply the nursing process to the tutoring process.

“We assess, diagnose, make a plan and implement it,” she said. “Then, of course, we evaluate each student’s progress.”

The idea, Esquibel said, is not to re-teach but to help students become independent learners, better equipping them for success and enhancing their self-confidence.

Of course students do not have to be struggling in their classwork to utilize the Tutoring Center. Anyone enrolled in nursing classes can take advantage of the expertise therein—prescriptions are not required.  

Student success, meanwhile, is impacted for all students who take advantage of the Center by direct participation of nursing faculty in the tutoring process. Several members of the AC faculty have embraced the effort, taken ownership of the process, and many take shifts in the Center as one part of their normal workload.

That, said Pullen, is what sets AC’s Tutoring Center apart from others that were researched along the way.

“Tutoring is only as strong as those who buy into it,” Pullen said. “Very few, if any, of the centers that we looked at in developing our own had this kind of faculty tie-in. It’s vital, and it gives us greater hope of success.”

AC’s Tutoring Outreach Center today is the exclusive purview of the Nursing Department, but Pullen said it promises one day soon to be open to students in all the allied health disciplines and any other programs housed on AC’s West Campus.

“The initial focus, of course, is on nursing—ADN and Vocational—but over time, as we meet our benchmarks, we will open it up to all the other disciplines on our campus,” Pullen said. “At that point we’ll expand the staff in a way that will enhance student success throughout the West Campus.

“It’s something we can do and should do, and we look forward to the day when we’ve realized that goal, too.”

The West Campus Tutoring Outreach Center, currently on the third floor of Jones Hall, is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information about what it has to offer, please contact Anna Min Esquibel at 806-354-6020 or 806-418-1119.

November 9, 2015