The Value of Undergraduate Electives for Recruitment in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

The current nursing shortage has focused attention upon the need for the recruitment and retention of nursing students, as well as practitioners, to increase the available supply of nurses. Specialties such as psychiatric nursing which historically have not attracted a large percentage of graduates are at particular risk for nurse shortages. The nursing Literature of the past 15 years has demonstrated that undergraduate electives have served to interest students in particular areas of nursing. The experience of one baccalaureate nursing program which used a grant to institute electives for recruitment into employment and graduate study is described in this article.