The Dotson Bridge and Mentoring Program

BACKGROUND: Even though the Institute of Medicine released a report on the importance of ethnic diversity in the health care workforce to reduce health disparities, there has been little progress in increasing diversity in nursing. PROBLEM: Nationally, health care systems do not have adequate representation of Black/African American, Asian, and Latino RNs. APPROACH: The Dotson Bridge and Mentoring Program is an innovative mentoring program for African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American (ALANA) students. CONCLUSION: Mentoring programs that support ALANA students can lead to an increase in retention, graduation, and NCLEX pass rates and should be an integral part of nursing programs. The outcomes of the program included improving the course pass rates from 50% to 92%, improving the first-time NCLEX pass rate from 74% to 94% and decreasing the attrition rate from 23% to 1%.