THE CHALLENGE
The U.S. is facing a serious shortage of nurses. Roughly 100,000 registered nurses were estimated to have left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic due to stress, burnout, and retirements. If that wasn’t bad enough, research shows that approximately 800,000 nurses intend to leave the profession by 2027. Moreover, the need to help new clinicians transition from education to practice topped healthcare experts’ list of patient safety concerns for 2024, and the COVID-19 pandemic further devastated learning progress for our nation’s students. And the most cited reason among prospective applicants for delaying or foregoing application to nursing school was the desire to improve academic preparedness.
There is no question something must be done to combat this crisis. Like many schools, Holy Name Medical Center noticed significant deficits in freshmen students’ basic skills, such as reading comprehension, math, writing, and communication among nursing students. Teachers noted a significant lack in productivity and student remediation was taking up a large amount of faculty time that could be much better suited to other areas of student development.
THE SOLUTION
Holy Name Medical Center started using ATI Nursing Education’s teaching tool “TEAS SmartPrep,” which put the responsibility of learning back on students by providing students. ATI’s SmartPrep is a comprehensive TEAS preparation package that accelerates past traditional learning methods and drives student readiness with personalized study plans, engaging content, and frequent comprehension checks.
THE OUTCOME
On average, students who used TEAS prep materials from ATI scored higher on their TEAS test than those using other companies’ materials or no study prep materials. All incoming students were required to complete the prep course before starting nursing school at Holy Name Medical Center, and they were not only less stressed, but also understand the expectation of accountability and responsibility for their learning. They have also seen:
• 50% less attrition. Fall-semester attrition dropped from 20% to 10%.
• Proven learning. Didactic testing showed students better able to glean critical info in readings.
• Top scores. School achieved best success ever in medication-calcs assessment.
• Time savings. Responsibility of learning basic skills transferred from faculty to students, allowing advisors to focus on content acquisition and other areas of needed development.
• More confident students. Students more engaged/better prepared for rigors of nursing school.
Thank you to ATI Nursing Education for contributing this powerful case study to the Healthcare Workforce Coalition.