The state of Texas has three broad health objectives for the year 2000: increasing the health life span of Texas citizens, decreasing health disparities among Texas citizens, and achieving access to preventive services for all Texas citizens. The Health Department for the state of Texas note differences in prevention programs needed because of ethnic- specific incidence rates of diseases such as diabetes. Their recommendations for achieving both broad and specific health care objectives include education of special health care provider groups such as nurses and increasing the delivery of health services of all Texas citizens. In the past two decades their has been an increased recognition of the need to develop specialized programs to address the recruitment and retention of minority students and faculty of predominantly while college and university campuses (Brown, 1979; Buckley, 1980; Feldbaum, 1979 Robinson, 1972; Stearns & Marchione, 1989). Attrition rates for minority students in nursing are estimated to be between 15-85% with high rates being associated with a single retention focus on academics and lack of a faculty committed to help such students (Rodgers, 1990). The Minority High School Nursing Research Experience (MHSNRE) is designed to facilitate the entry of minority students into health sciences careers, including nursing, by providing direct mentoring of these students and their science teachers by active nurse researches.
The Specific aims are to: 1. orient students and high school teachers to the state of nursing science and health promotion research; 2. provide students and teachers direct experience in assisting nurse researchers in conducting health promotion research; 3. provide students and teachers a forum in which to learn about current methods of health promotion research; 4. strengthen relationships between nursing scholars, high school minority students, and high school teachers; and 5. encourage minority high school students to become nurses and nurse researchers.
