A Practical & Proactive Strategy to Increase First-Year Retention in Nursing Programs
Increasing Academic Readiness With Structured Support & Personalized Coaching
Across most fields of study in higher education, faculty are struggling to adapt to the needs of learners whose career dreams are at risk due to a common denominator: lack of academic preparedness. Meeting this challenge has distinct consequences for the healthcare sector, where 41% of hospitals had a vacancy rate of at least 10% in 2024.
But a proactive approach to improving academic readiness in first-year nursing students can help them start stronger and stay enrolled longer — ultimately improving retention rates and first-time NCLEX pass rates.
Students who enter the BSN or MSN program at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing receive free access to exactly this type of program. It’s an opportunity that can improve their academic and study skills, as well as their mental health and well-being.
This article describes UIC’s innovative strategy and explains how the customized online skill-building program at the center of this approach is shaping meaningful outcomes.
Developing a Tailored Approach to Improving Academic Readiness
The Bill and Brittany Conway PREPARE Program at UIC is a pre-enrollment readiness program designed to reduce first-semester attrition and improve NCLEX pass rates. It provides students with:
- individualized success plans
- early connections with advisors
- access to success coaches across UIC campuses
- a customized academic readiness program.
PREPARE is an acronym for Prelicensure REadiness Program for Aspiring Registered nursEs. Three UIC faculty leaders developed this program and received a state grant to initiate it with incoming prelicensure nursing students starting in the 2024-2025 academic year. The program is now sustained by the Bedford Falls Foundation and named for the foundation’s cofounder, Bill Conway Jr., and his daughter, Brittany Conway. Both earned degrees at UIC.
As they developed the grant application for PREPARE, MSN Program Director Robin Johnson, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC, BSN Program Director Amy Johnson, PhD, RN, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Liz Aquino, PhD, RN, sought to provide a targeted, data-informed and holistic way to improve student readiness. (See this article for more background on how they developed the program.)
In parallel to the valuable faculty and campus supports that PREPARE provides, students receive access to Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness®, the 6-week asynchronous online academic readiness program developed by ATI.
Launch addresses the most common academic and skills weaknesses in incoming nursing students, as well as mental health and wellness. An ATI Educator guides each student through the Launch program, providing tailored remediation along the way. Data from institutions that have implemented Launch show that students are better prepared for a nursing curriculum from academic and mental health standpoints.
During the 6 weeks of the PREPARE program, each student works through the Launch program, which provides:
- one-on-one guidance from an ATI Educator
- quizzes, tutorials, and assignments that meet each student’s learning style
- learning modules covering nursing math, medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, and student success skills (how to study, take tests and maintain well-being)
- multimedia content delivery that helps cement knowledge in key concepts
- an end-of-program assessment to determine comprehension.
Closing Knowledge Gaps & Identifying Specific Needs
The prelicensure nursing programs at UIC have experienced notable benefits since they initiated PREPARE in fall 2024. These two tracks attract large cohorts each year. The BSN program enrolls approximately 270 students across three campuses, and the MSN program enrolls approximately 112 students across three campuses. UIC’s MSN program is for non-nurses, and it attracts people from a wide range of degree and career backgrounds.
“Many of these students haven’t taken prerequisite courses like anatomy and physiology in many years, which makes the Anatomy & Physiology module in Launch especially important,” Dr. Robin Johnson said.
In fact, in the first year of PREPARE, the faculty noticed that the A&P module in Launch served as an important wakeup call to the demands of being a college student again.
“Launch helped them realize how much they had forgotten,” Dr. Johnson said. “It got them back into school mode.”
A key contribution of Launch is the data it provides to faculty about student gaps and needs. This occurs as the ATI Educator communicates with UIC faculty and as faculty see performance and engagement trends in the ATI faculty dashboard.
“Because we integrated Launch into PREPARE, we can make individualized success plans for our students,” Dr. Johnson said. “We get them connected to their advisors early, connected to our success coaches early, and we are able to individualize those approaches based on knowledge gaps.”
Initial Outcomes of PREPARE with Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness
During a presentation at the 2025 National Nurse Educator Summit and in an ATI webinar for nursing programs in the Midwest, Dr. Johnson shared results from the first year of PREPARE. Here are a few ways the data strongly support the strategy:
- Higher level of academic readiness: Faculty reported that students were better prepared for first semester classes as a result of Launch and the PREPARE resources.
- Stronger application of knowledge: A high percentage of students passed their initial skills checkoffs the first time — an indicator of their ability to learn and then apply new knowledge.
- Improved communication & engagement: Faculty noticed that students asked questions more often during class and generally exhibited improved communication.
Measurable improvement on assessments: UIC students who completed Launch showed measurable improvement in post-tests, moving from “proficient” to “advanced” levels in science and reading, Dr. Johnson said.
Launch Reduces Faculty Workload and Remediation Demands
Beyond improving student performance, Launch positively influences faculty workload. It reduces demands on busy nurse educators by closing the academic gaps that otherwise would require them to provide remediation, slowing the progress of the class.
For the UIC students who completed Launch, instructors spent less time reviewing basic concepts, allowing them to focus on more advanced material, Dr. Johnson said.
“They previously had to provide a lot of review of A&P — knowledge the students should be coming in with,” Dr. Johnson said. “As a result of Launch, students are closer to that material. Faculty love that they can refer students back to those Launch resources if they need more review.”
The UIC faculty also appreciate that PREPARE ensures students are familiar with the ATI platform when they begin classes. This reduces student onboarding time and technology resource concerns.
“The technology things that you might have to spend your time on when you’re teaching class can be a problem,” Dr. Johnson said. “You want to spend your time teaching.”
Using Launch in Retention & Readmission Strategies
Retention is a critical metric for nursing programs because it has academic and financial implications. Empty seats can’t be filled when a cohort loses students, and students who falter early in a program often face long delays before they can get readmitted.
A future goal at UIC is to start using Launch as part of its readmission requirements for students who don’t complete their first semester. The faculty’s thinking is that providing a structured opportunity to address weaknesses will help students maintain academic momentum and ensure they return better prepared.
“We want them to do something that’s going to be supportive of their success when they come back to us,” Dr. Johnson said.
UIC’s interest in incorporating Launch in future retention and readmission efforts reflects the improved outcomes other academic programs report when they broaden the applications of this resource. See this article on the ATI Educator Blog for information on how nursing leaders at Pacific Lutheran University and Chaminade University have used Launch: Nursing Academic Readiness to assist and support recruitment, retention, advising and tutoring, and more.
Building Blocks for Long-Term Success
The UIC nursing faculty believe the PREPARE program and Launch serve as building blocks for long-term success. They hope to increase the number of incoming students who take advantage of these resources. In the first year of PREPARE, 86% of BSN students and 78% of MSN students started the program, but a significant percentage did not complete it.
“Our goal is 100% participation in PREPARE going forward,” Dr. Johnson said. “We also think it’s important to connect more students with success coordinators and over the long term, to embed PREPARE as a required prenursing readiness program for all students.”
UIC’s experience with Launch illustrates that the program has far-reaching effects. It doesn’t just prepare students for their first semester — it lays the groundwork for success throughout the program.
Dr. Johnson said PREPARE gives students more than early exposure to essential material and support. It provides structure, confidence and a sense of community — all before the first semester even begins.
“By blending academic readiness with intentional support, this program helps reduce the shock of transition and helps students enter nursing school believing they can succeed,” she said. “That foundation not only can improve first-year retention but also sets the trajectory for success throughout the curriculum and into practice.”
