Aim: Building and sustaining learning communities (LC) is an innovative strategy to support baccalaureate nursing student performance and promote retention. Design: This study follows a quantitative correlational research design comparing nursing students in a learning community and those not enrolled in a learning community. Methods: A health science LC was formed with activities developed to build an intra-cohort support system. Ninety-three students were followed from their freshmen year through graduation. A collegiality scale was used to examine differences in perceived support of those enrolled in LCs (n = 67) and those not enrolled in LCs (n = 21). Examination of GPA as well as retention over four years was examined. Results: Despite unequal sample sizes, Levene’s test of equal variance confirmed that the samples had equal variance (F = 0.95, p > 0.05). There was not a significant difference in collegiality scores between those in the LC (M = 39.58, SD = 4.91) and those not enrolled in a LC (M = 39.57, SD = 4.48; t (86) = .009, p > 0.05). When examining the GPAs of all students in the LC as well as those not in the LC, Levene’s test of equal variance demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups (F = 33.90, p > 0.05) so t-tests were run assuming inequal variance and found that GPAs for nursing students (n = 67, M = 3.48, SD = 0.4) were significantly higher than non-nursing (n = 26, M = 2.75, SD = 1.05) in the sample (t (27.86) = ?3.46, p < 0.01). Examining students currently enrolled at the University (n = 75), regression analysis was run to determine if participation in a LC was a predictor of GPA (M = 3.52, SD = 0.29) and revealed that enrollment in a LC predicts 9% of the variance in GPAs (R2 = 0.09). Further, LC enrollment significantly predicts GPAs (B = ?0.301, p < 0.05). A Chi-square test of independence showed no significant association between LC membership and currently being an enrolled student (X2 (1, N = 93) = 3.7, p = 0.054) however, retention rate for students in a LC was 76% compared to the university’s 70%. Innovative curricular strategies to foster student success contribute meaningfully to improved nursing student retention.
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