Breakthrough to Nursing

​ Committee

"Every Beat Counts"

Jaleighya Townsend 
BTN Director
Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University 
​Atlanta, GA 
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What is the Role of the
Breakthrough to Nursing Committee?

Breakthrough to Nursing® (BTN) is NSNA’s® project to increase the number and diversity of students choosing nursing as a career. The project was established because of NSNA’s® concern over the inadequacy of health care delivery to minority group members and the lack of minority group health care providers. The objectives of the project are to promote career opportunities in nursing, with a focus on substantially increasing the number of students from groups who traditionally have been underrepresented in American nursing, and to encourage the nursing educational system to be more responsive to the needs of these students. The project has been supported by NSNA since 1965. Its effectiveness seems due, in part, to the peer relationship that can be established between nursing students and minority group elementary, middle and high school students. In addition, through the Foundation of the NSNA, scholarships support is available for diverse nursing students to increase the number of registered nurses from ethnic minorities in the profession. 

BTN also teaches nursing students to be culturally competent in their care of all patients.  Resolutions passed by the NSNA House of Delegates has expanded the Project to include the recruitment of students from all underrepresented populations. 

Jaleighya Townsend, Director and Chair,
Breakthrough to Nursing Committee
​Winter-Spring Memo

Hello NSNA Members!

I hope the Spring 2021 semester is going well. Many of you are graduating this semester and joining the profession of nursing. I would like to personally congratulate you on completing this milestone in your nursing career.

​Our first ever virtual 38th MidYear Conference was a success. I enjoyed meeting so many new students and discussing Breakthrough to Nursing (BTN) at the roundtables. You were attentive and flexible throughout the conference. As a committee, BTN gave an update on the various things we have completed thus far at the virtual conference. We have done more than I could imagine and with your help I know we can do more. We have so many great opportunities planned for you to learn more about BTN. The BTN Toolkit discussed during the roundtable meeting remains the best way for great ideas from across the country to be placed in one convenient location. This toolkit has become an evergrowing and all-encompassing document filled with successful BTN projects for the future nursing students of the NSNA to draw from. If you have a project, BTN story, or any articles you think would be great to be featured in the toolkit, please email me!

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"Every Beat Counts"
Jaleighya Townsend,
​NSNA 2020-2021 BTN Director

Jaleighya Townsend, NSNA 2020-2021 BTN Director, speaks on the Breakthrough to Nursing Committee during the 2020 Summer Leadership U Conference.

BTN Resources
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​How to Establish a Mentor-Mentee Program At Your School
The BTN Project
Nursing students from all over the country share their thoughts on becoming nurses. Video created by Jennifer Kalenkoski, Breakthrough to Nursing Director (2016-17).