Academic factors affecting learning at a nursing college in the Western Cape

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Nursing education, including the individual nurse educator, has a responsibility tosociety and to students for providing quality education, for maintaining the highestacademic standards, for the proficient use of teaching strategies and for ensuringadequate support to learners. These standards were threatened at a particular collegein the Western Cape which instigated this study.This study aimed at investigating the academic factors that influenced learning at aparticular nursing college in the Western Cape. The objectives included the followingpossible factors that may have contributed towards the unsatisfactory, academicperformances of students:• Nursing as a career choice;• Selection criteria;• Approaches to learning;• Motivation and learning;• Language barrier to learning; and• Factors affecting the learning environment.A non-experimental, descriptive research design was applied with a quantitativeapproach. The target population (N = 963) consisted of nursing students following thecourse leading to registration as a professional nurse, according to the South AfricanNursing Council's regulation 425, as promulgated by the Nursing Act 50 of 1978, asamended (Nursing Act 33 of 2005). Probability, stratified sampling was used to selectthe sample of participants (n = 174).A structured questionnaire, consisting of predominantly closed questions, was used forthe collection of data.Ethical approval was obtained from Stellenbosch University to conduct this study.Permission to conduct the research was also obtained beforehand from themanagement of the nursing college being studied, whilst prior informed consent wasobtained from each participant. Reliability and validity of the study were assured by means of a pilot study and throughthe use of experts in nursing research, methodology and statistics. Data was collectedand captured by the researcher personally.The data was analysed with the support of a statistician and was expressed asfrequencies and in tables and histograms. Descriptive statistics and post-hoc analyses,including tests for statistical associations, were performed.The outcomes from this study showed that third year students (n = 49/23%) spent themost time studying, whilst first years (n = 74/43%) and second years (n = 40/23%) onlyspent 2.3 hours studying per day. Academic support classes, when offered, werealways attended by (n = 64/37%) and most times by (n = 72/42%). The majority of theparticipants were able to cope with the workload most of the time (n = 107/61%), whilst(n = 51/30%) and (n = 6/3%) of the participants indicated coping seldom and never,respectively. A significant relationship between the ages of participants and being ableto cope with the workload (Spearman p-value = 0.02) existed. Results indicated that (n= 83/48%) of the participants received support with language problems, whilst (n =75/43%) indicated that they did not receive support with language problems. TheAfrikaans speaking participants coped the best with the workload (mean score = 1.72),followed by the English speaking students (mean score = 1.68), and lastly the Isi-Xhosa speaking learners (mean score = 1.65).Recommendations made by participants included the following:• Strict adherence to the selection criteria, which should help decrease theattrition rate.• English as a subject / module during the first year was proposed.• The promotion of the proficiency in English, through interaction between Englishspeaking learners and students with English as second language, should beencouraged.• Regular updates of the contents of the curriculum.• The importance of identifying 'at risk' students and pro-actively introducing amentorship programme.• Information technology needed to be improved in many aspects, such asaccessibility of Web based communication. Results from the open ended questions showed that participants regarded the teachingstrategies as boring. Large classrooms were also mentioned as a problem. Smallerclasses were requested to enable more interaction in the class.In conclusion, this study showed that specific academic factors were influencinglearning at the nursing college being investigated in the Western Cape. Therefore,recommendations were made in this study, which, if implemented, should result in animprovement in the overall academic performances of students.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University