PPY 731/781: Fundamentals of Writing Policy Briefs/Doctoral Capstone Course I (Bruner): Education

Policy Focus: Educational Disparities for Latino Population in Higher Education

• Interested in looking @Latino graduation landscape; status quo of things; nationally-equity gaps in Latino college degree completion

• NV college completion rate: rather low in comparison to the Latino student population in general

• Need more Latino students to graduate from college

• Challenges: move forward—see possible solutions;

• Percentage of Whites, African Americans, Latinos, etc.--graduation rates over time

• Graduation rates are growing faster: gap is growing: mathematically…How are we looking into the numbers?

• Percentage-wise: Find Latino-overall numbers

• Is there a graduation problem in Nevada? What about on a national level? (Nationally: Latino grad rate is 24%; NV: 16 % of Latinos are graduating; 46% of White students are graduating)

• Yes, it is growing; but it needs to be accelerated to meet the needs of workforce

• Current efforts in NV to accelerate NV latino grad rates need to be raised; they are insufficient

• Everything that is being done: High school programs; NSHE system; Federal programs;

• Historical trends—where we ought to be going

What information & resources still need to be found/investigated: 

• Are there w/in NV studies & reports about college graduation post secondary completion/graduation?

• Aside from the Guinn Center, are there studies/reports specifically focused on the Latino population?

• Does NSHE keep data on attrition rates/transfer rates?

• Financial Aid in NV?

• Look into underrepresented student population groups

• Look into historical figures (the last 20 years)

• Groups support NV Latino graduation (Programs w/in the state)

The research I continue to need:

• Number of Registered Nurses in Nevada
  • The number of nurses in Nevada is available the subset of Registered Nurses and Registered Nurses working in the clinical/bedside workforce is even more elusive. 
• Number of nurses needed to provide safe care in the population (probably listed in a format like:  X number of nurses per 1000 citizens)
• Staffing Standards for hospitals (number of nurses per patient)
• Number of nurses teaching
• Number of nurses working more than 1 job in Nevada
• Number of nurses leaving nursing related to pandemic (including death from COVID-19, retirement, suicide, burn out)
• Financial impact of pandemic on healthcare facilities (hospitals, layoffs?)
• Number of schools teaching RNs and the type of programs
  • Want to sort by community college, university, private public want both national and Nevada data
  • Want to sort by type of nursing program in the nation
    • Diploma in nursing
    • Associates Degree in nursing
    • Bachelor’s Degree in nursing
    • Master’s degree in nursing
• Anything noteworthy on one type of education vs another (ex:  diploma vs bachelor’s prepared)
  • Graduation rates
  • NCLEX pass rates
• Current list of nursing compact states     
  • Any research that supports it works or does not help states staff with nurses
• Research on quality of care provided by bachelors prepared nurses.  There has long been research demonstrating bachelor’s prepared nurses provide a high quality of care to patients.  I am looking for anything that contradicts this assertion.
• Nurse Reinvestment Act current progress in US Legislature
•  

Note:  Must decide after research is gathered whether to focus on bedside/clinical nurses if there is enough data or to simply focus on registered nurses. 
 

Topic: Student Fees w/in NSHE for Undergraduates

• Student Retention (Undergrads)

• Course Fees (besides textbooks):

  • Online education

  • Equipment

  • Needing a laptop 

  • Special programs 

  • Student Success fees 

  • Health Center  

  • Gap Services 

  • Administrative fees 

  • Grad admission 

  • Differential fees 

  • Guest speakers

• NSHE Challenges w/Fees

  • Big inconsistencies across institutions

  • How they’re assessed; semester basis

  • Charged only once, difficulties w/transparency

  • All of the fees are not labeled the same across NSHE system as a whole 

• Needs to Find

  • Historical Data on Fees; NSHE current fees previous catalogs; 

  • Demonstrate a trend over 10-20 years

  • Student retention/Student attrition

**Please note, Nancy: I have sent a message to UNLV Special Collections to see if they have past years' fees in their UNLV Archives. Hope to hear from them soon.