Reaching out:

Abstract

In 1975, the Alabama Department of Education urged the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to address a critical need for master's-prepared nurses. The UAB School of Nursing responded by conducting an Outreach Project (ORP) from 1976 to 1983, with both federal and state funding, in an effort to bring a graduate educational program to areas where such training was not available. The ORP faculty team traveled weekly to each of four off-campus sites, located in Mobile, Montgomery, Decatur, and Gadsden. Courses were offered one day per week in facilities provided by local host schools. The ORP courses were identical in content to courses taught on campus and were offered on a systematic, cyclical basis so that study could be pursued part-time and completed in two to three years. Classes, seminars, and on-site or toll-free telephone conferences were supplemented by audiovisual aids and learning packets, and local MSN-prepared nurse preceptors supervised the advanced clinical practicums. The average course load rose from 2.70 semester hours to 5.35 hours by 1982, producing an overall average of 4.10 hours, with 6 hours considered a full-time course load. Students were overwhelmingly female and Caucasian, and 70 per cent maintained full-time employment while pursuing their studies. The requirements for the MSN degree were completed by 216 of the 387 ORP students. The academic performance of the ORP students was approximately equal to that of the on-campus students. The average mean cost for ORP students was $640 per academic term, as compared to $1659 for on-campus students; the cost to the School of Nursing was $82.81 per semester hour for each ORP student, as compared to $316 for each on-campus student, with the difference largely attributable to the absorption of overhead costs by the ORP host schools. The ORP produced dramatic increases in the number of master's-prepared nurses in all four catchment areas, with increases of 100 per cent in Mobile, 193 per cent in Montgomery, 200 per cent in Decatur, and 100 per cent in Gadsden. In addition, new MSN programs were developed in the Mobile, Montgomery, and Gadsden areas as a direct result of the ORP.