After seeing a lack of resources in the process of applying to the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing, a group of pre-nursing students started a club to troubleshoot the competitive application.
The undergraduate students kicked off the UI Pre-nursing Club student organization this January, and over 160 pre-nursing majors joined.
The UI is known for its revered nursing program, leading more than 800 students along the College of Nursing track. Yet, the major is competitive, and only up to 84 out of hundreds of applicants are automatically selected for study each fall, according to the UI College of Nursing’s website.
According to the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, UI’s College of Nursing is ranked first among public universities, and fourth in the nation.
Those who do not automatically enter into the nursing track start on the pre-nursing track, a two-year-long process that prepares students for the College of Nursing.
Emilia Speier-Moody, a UI third-year student and president of the pre-nursing club, said she was originally not accepted into the College of Nursing as a first-year.
After talking with fellow pre-nursing students about the lack of resources for those on the track and the difficulty of the application process, Speier-Moody said she was inspired to start a club to offer support for the pre-nursing community.
Speier-Moody said the most difficult part for an incoming first-year who is interested in nursing is getting through the application process.
“I really had no idea what they were looking for on the applications or even in the classes. Trying to find people that you can talk to because it’s such a stressful process,” Speier-Moody said. “So I think it’s more that social aspect of like, ‘Oh, you’re really stressed about this? Yeah, me too.’And it’s just having that in knowing that there’s other people in your same experience.”
Speier-Moody said in an invitation to the club that the pre-nursing club would offer resources such as volunteer opportunities, group study sessions, and meetings with upperclassmen nursing students for advice.
In an email to The Daily Iowan, Evan Lacina, a UI first-year student, said he heard about the pre-nursing club through an email from his academic advisor. Although Lacina has not attended any meetings yet, he feels as though the study session resources would be helpful for difficult pre-requisite classes.
“I think it’s important to have a supportive community so you can have people to talk to who are also interested in nursing and can offer advice on how to get into the program,” Lacina wrote.
The UI College of Nursing website provides a number of campus resources, along with six nursing student organizations for undergraduate and graduate students. These campus resources include links to textbooks, the student handbook, and the Nursing Clinical Education Center, or NCEC.
In addition to these resources, Emma Larson, a UI second-year student and director of outreach for the Pre-nursing Club, said she hopes to provide application-specific support through the club.
Larson said advisors can only provide so much help for pre-nursing students, such as information about prerequisites and the fact that interested students will need to apply for the College of Nursing.
Marin Duffy, a UI first-year student and vice president of the pre-nursing club, said she hopes the club will lessen the “competitive aspect” in the pre-nursing track.
RELATED: UI nursing students get clinical experience, support staff workload in ‘unit partner’ program
“You want to be friends with people and help each other, but there’s always the competition aspect. So I feel like this will help like lessen that,” Duffy said.
Larson said it is important to emphasize to pre-nursing students to not be overly stressed if they do not get accepted into the College of Nursing right away, and that everything will work out for the best.
“I think, just knowing there are different routes, not getting in the first time isn’t the end all be all,” Larson said. “We have multiple exec members that had different routes, completely different routes from the standard path. So there’s different ways, none of them are bad or ever the wrong way.”