Keeping afloat: student nurses’ experiences following assignment referral
Introduction
Although there are a plethora of studies, which explore the common reasons why student nurses leave prior to completing nursing programmes (Glossop, 2001; Richardson, 2000; White et al., 1999; Hughes, 1998), there does not appear to be any evidence relating to the strategies that support those who ‘stay the distance’. If nurse educators are to build upon good practice in supporting students they must understand these supportive strategies, because capturing the how and why students are successful may assist in combating attrition. These concepts formulated the basis of this study, which centred upon questioning why some students who are developing well in clinical practice but failing in academic work go on to complete the course and become successful practitioners, while others are lost to the nursing profession. The aim of this paper is to examine the experiences of a group of students after referral on the first attempt of a summative assessment in order to identify potential strategies that could be adopted to support academically weak students, through the application of inductive sociological enquiry based approach (Bailey, 1997).
Section snippets
Literature review
In order to contextualise issues relating to student progression, attrition, education and student status, and student support will be discussed.
Attrition
During the last 15 years, nurse education within the UK has undergone major reforms, firstly with the introduction of Project 2000 (UKCC, 1986), which has recently been superseded by the introduction of the Making a Difference (DoH, 1999) programme. The overall aim of these modernization programmes have been twofold; namely to improve the professional standing of nurses within the UK, and to improve the retention of student nurses. Although it is too early to consider the impact Making a
Education and student status
Concerns relating to the ‘status’ of nursing students, within the UK, were identified as early as the 1940s (Wood, 1947). The Briggs Report (HMSO, 1972) and the more recently established United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC, 1986), have highlighted the repetitive nature of the work of nursing apprentices and the lack of learning opportunities in practice. However, students did not become supernumerary to the National Health Service (NHS) staffing
Student support
Briggs, 1972 identified the importance of nurturing students and suggested that in clinical practice one registered practitioner should support an individual student. This has been difficult to achieve with the increasing demand for student practice placements and the decreasing number of qualified practitioners. Macleod Clark (1998) identified adequate support as a significant factor that contributed directly to the retention of student nurses. Furthermore, she suggested that the problems of
Methodology
A desire to explore the emic perspectives of students who stay on their course following assignment referral, the paucity of research related to the phenomena, and a genuine wish to understand the students’ feelings and attitudes, validated the choice of methodology (Flemming, 1998); an inductive sociological enquiry based approach. Focus groups were used in order to reveal the student’s own perspectives and facilitate naturalistic expression.
Sample
An adequate and appropriate sample determines the quality of the research generated (Morse, 1991). Therefore, a purposeful sample (Ziebland and Wright, 1997) containing participants, who had experienced assignment referral and were willing to share personal insight with the focus groups was obtained. The participants were conveniently sampled from cohorts that were easily accessible on the days the research data was collected. The total number of participants (n = 20) were assigned to two groups
Results and discussion
The categories that emerged from the data could be linked, after much discussion and reworking, into four key themes (Fig. 2):
- •
Desire to succeed
- •
Acceptance of personal failure
- •
Recognition of personal attributes that are required for success
- •
Responsibility for both personal success and failure
Conclusions
From the outset the purpose of this study was to try and understand the students’ experiences of the positive and negative aspects that are related to their academic assignments throughout their studentship. The literature review identified the complexities that surround nursing and nurse education including legislation and societal change along with the demographic and epidemiological picture of today (DoH, 1999; UKCC, 1999). Attrition from nursing programmes is a multi-faceted problem and
Recommendations
Recommendations from this study include:
- •
Providing a range of academic support mechanisms, which are transparent and foster student participation such as; generic support led by a designated student support lecturer, ‘buddying’ with a more senior student, study skills groups.
- •
More explicit development of time management skills.
- •
The provision of realistic financial advice.
- •
Review, as a matter of urgency, student finances, which will reflect the nursing student profile for example students’ who have
References (57)
- et al.
Factors influencing turnover and absence of nurses: a research review
International Journal of Nursing Studies
(1997) - et al.
Project 2000 student wastage: a case study
Nurse Education Today
(1994) Student nurse attrition from pre-registration courses: investigating methodological issues
Nurse Education Today
(2001)- et al.
Focus groups as a tool for critical social research in nurse education
Nurse Education Today
(2001) Quality in nurse education: an exploration of the concept of students as customers
Nurse Education Today
(1996)- et al.
Retention and withdrawal of student nurses
International Journal of Nursing studies
(1975) - et al.
Discontinuation, leaving reasons, and course evaluation comments of students on the common foundation programme
Nurse Education Today
(1999) Drop-out rate causes alarm
Nursing Standard
(1998)- et al.
Teaching tools: problem-based learning
Nurse Educator
(1998) Finding your way around qualitative methods in nursing research
Journal of Advanced Nursing
(1997)
Job satisfaction in preceptorship and its effect on the clinical performance of the preceptor
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Report of the Committee of Nursing
Issues in reliability & validity
Analysing data using a word processor
Nurse Researcher
Use Your Head
A qualitative analysis of student nurses’ experiences of mentorship
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Problem-based learning in an integrated nursing curriculum
The search for strategies to reduce nurse vacancies
Professional Nurse
Q methodology
Nurse Researcher
Selecting individual or group interview
Doing fieldwork in your own culture
Asking answerable questions
Evidence-Based Nursing
The apparent desensitisation of student nurses during their professional socialisation: a cognitive perspective
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Focus groups as alternative research practice Area
Journal
Cited by (0)
- 1
Tel.: +44-113-3431187; fax: +44-113-3431204.