Decolonizing entry to practice: Reconceptualizing methods to facilitate diversity in nursing programs (Teaching and Learning in Nursing)

Nursing education is the foundation from which all nursing practice, theory, and science cultivate the professional practice of nurses working across the entire healthcare spectrum. Diversity in the nursing workforce originates in schools of nursing (SON). Selective-admission practices fluctuate across SONs. SONs, to limit bias, often de-identify an applicant's information, commonly retaining application content that is centric to highlighting academic performance, representing a unique paradox. Given this paradox, SONs must review their recruiting strategies to diversify the application pool by removing barriers and abandoning outdated practices to decolonize the admissions process. Decolonization refers to the process by which there is an intentional and systematic undoing of western colonial ideologies of superiority, thought, approaches, and privilege. We examine the current recruiting practices for prelicensure nursing programs within the United States and using existing research, inspire various methods to decolonize the recruiting and subsequent application process to expand the diversity of applicants. There remains an urgent and persistent requisite to diversify the nursing profession to compliment the developing and emerging ethnic profile of the United States.