The Nursing Pathway
The Nursing Pathway
Embedded Files
Co-designing a professional nursing education workforce program with the communities of North Chicago
Come along for the experience of co-desgining with high school students and their families to create Phase 1 of a professional pathway program that leads to a Masters degree in Nursing.
This program was implemented as of 2023 at Rosalind Franklin University and has seen multiple graduating classes!
Kim Erwin - Project Lead and Design Mentor
Amy Zasadzinski - Design Co-Lead
Latrina Lee - Design Co-Lead
The Challenge
The Challenge
In the hardship indexed communities of Lake County IL, there are two pressing needs:
Need for a more highly educated and diverse nursing workforce
Need to improve educational attainment among underserved youth
Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) College of Nursing had the idea to create a professional pathway program for students that would guide them all the way from junior year of high school through completing a Masters degree in Nursing.
RFU was struggling with Phase I of their program, because after completing the phase, students would often:
❌ Not end up pursuing a medical career
❌ Apply for scholarships at universities in other states, pulling talent away from Lake County
RFU wanted a clear vision of what a successful program would need to provide to attract students, provide foundations of support, and ensure students' success
How might we
build an equitable and educational nursing program that meaningfully supports high school students in underserved communities?
Start by designing the program with those communities.
Listening Phase
Listening Phase
We established a community driven approach through designing and facilitating 6 interactive community workshops
We established a community driven approach through designing and facilitating 6 interactive community workshops
Workshop Goals
Build trust
Uphold lived experience
Identify Barriers and Support
Brainstorm program elements
Build trust with communities who are used to being talked at, rather than collaborated with
Honor their expertise when it comes to their values, world-views, cultural identities, and their first-hand experiences in this space
Uncover the barriers and existing support that impact students' decision and ability to get advanced degrees
Determine the qualities of a program that can seamlessly fit into high school students' lives and the lives of their families
Participatory Design Research Workshops
Round Lake High School
- 11 Students
- 9 Parents
Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep
- 14 students
Co- Design Workshops
North Chicago Community High School
- 5 students
Current RFU High School Program students
- 9 students
Focus Group
Cristo Rey and North Chicago
- 6 guidance counselors
Take a look inside our student workshops!
Take a look inside our student workshops!
Sense Making Phase
Sense Making Phase
We synthesized sticky notes into solutions through affinity mapping and creating a journey map
We synthesized sticky notes into solutions through affinity mapping and creating a journey map
Affinity Mapping
Journey Mapping
We digitized and analyzed hundreds of sticky notes dictating the communities' lived experiences from the workshops.
Patterns:
Students have to work during the summer/ school year, so they need financial support to participate in a program
Students receive pressure from their parents to succeed, but also are expected to help the family at home
Students are worried about committing to a nursing career without actual exposure to the field or understanding the college workload
Students still want to feel like kids, but high school is forcing them to become adults, they don't want this program to "kill their soul"
We then created a journey map of how students feel during the whole process and their ideas for how the program would help them succeed, such as:
Relevant employment: The program would coach students through getting their CNA certification, so they can earn money in a healthcare field while in the program
Authentic mentorship: Students would be paired with current college student mentors to give them a real picture of what getting a degree in nursing looks like
Real-world skill building: Students would participate in Financial literacy classes, complete an actual college lab for a sneak peak at a college workload, and shadow nursing professionals in their daily life
Flexibility and Accommodations: Recorded lectures and 1:1 tutoring for if students have to miss class due to family obligations
Map included: Entice --> Enter --> Engage --> Exit --> Extend
From this analysis, we crafted the vision for the program components, and drafted a thorough report that included actionable elements that could be incorporated into the experience
From this analysis, we crafted the vision for the program components, and drafted a thorough report that included actionable elements that could be incorporated into the experience
Story Telling Phase
Story Telling Phase
To communicate our program plan to RFU executives, we created an immersive exhibition to tell the story of the communities' lived experience and dictate what they wanted in a program from their POV.
We introduced each program component with a character saying common quotes we heard from the workshop to represent the students we met.
We wanted the humanity of the students and their families to be front and center so that their experience would not be reduced to just data or qualifiers for certain program elements.
Below are the panels we designed for the exhibition!
Below are the panels we designed for the exhibition!
Build_Dreams.pdfProgram_Logistics.pdfInnovate_the_Experience.pdfOptimize_Guidance_1.pdfOptimize_Guidance_2.pdfConclusion
Conclusion
I am proud to say that the university and board representatives were awe-struck with what we had co-created with the communities they were aiming to serve! It is incredibly gratifying to know that the program is active and guiding students to reach their dreams in precisely the way that they wanted.
It was also amazing to hear parents and students share that they legitimately felt seen and heard during the workshops in ways they had never experienced before, and wished that their input could be given in that way more often. This is what co-design is about, and at the end of the day, this is the best way that community services should be designed.
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