A Bridge to Success: A Nursing Student Success Strategies Improvement Course

Background: Nursing student success and retention is in the forefront of educators' minds as we continue to face a projected nursing shortage. The key to combating the nursing shortage lies with our ability to successfully transition the student from nursing school and NCLEX-RN (R) to professional practice. Method: A quantitative research project using the one group pre- and posttest design is presented. Results: The research demonstrated that students' perceived stress levels decreased and self-efficacy increased following the success strategies improvement course. There was no relation between age and retention or the number of hours worked per week and retention with this cohort of students. The retention improvement from first semester to second semester following the course was only minimal. Conclusion: The course was a success in that it did influence a positive change in perceived stress and self-efficacy; however, it only provided minimal change in student retention. Student satisfaction with the course was strong.