| This thesis is a study about marketing strategies for the recruitment of students into baccalaureate nursing programs, within the context of the transition to the degree entry requirement for nursing practice and the new collaborative nursing degree programs in Ontario. Recruitment practices were examined in three Ontario universities that offer baccalaureate nursing education. Study findings pertain to the sequence of recruitment events, nature of participation from the baccalaureate nursing programs, processes for coordination between institutional and program divisions, enrollment objectives of the nursing programs, and some initial perspectives with respect to the impact of collaboration on student recruitment.;This research has particular relevance for the nursing profession at the current time. The Canadian Nurses Association expressed concern regarding the future supply of nurses in A Statistical Picture of the Past, Present and Future of Registered Nurses in Canada (1997). Contributing factors to a projected severe shortage are the large number of predicted retirements, the increased health care demand due to an aging population, and the decreased applicant pools in the 1990s. The document Health Human Resources: A Preliminary Analysis of Nursing Personnel in Ontario (1998), prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Health Nursing Task Force, expressed the same concerns after in-depth analysis of the Ontario population, health services utilization, and health human resources.;This study contributes to the recruitment literature by discussing issues pertaining to institutional strategy that have received limited scholarly attention and that are also relevant to other academic programs. The findings reveal that institutional promotion and recruitment have an important role in the achievement of qualified applicant pools and influencing applicants' decisions relating to university choice. Recruitment is organized and implemented primarily by the central liaison office, but that office also seeks participation from the academic units to most effectively promote the programs. Likewise, the School of Nursing cooperates with the institutional office by involving its faculty members and students in the recruitment function; however, there appears to be limited promotion that is initiated internally by the School of Nursing. This situation might change, however, if the collaborative degree nursing programs require more joint efforts between the universities and their college partners to attract sufficient numbers of qualified applicants to all program sites. |
