Reflections of Nursing Students’ Perceptions Toward Factors Influencing Their Academic Performance

Abstract

The students' academic performance is one of the most imperative component in all universities to make sure in delivering the best quality graduates who will set out to be extraordinary pioneer and employees who have a positive reflection on the nation's financial growth and social advancement of the national and international area. Thus, the current study aimed to describe nursing students' perceptions toward factors influencing academic performance. A quantitative descriptive-design was conducted with a convenience sample of 150 female nursing students in the third and fourth academic year, college of nursing, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh-Kingdom Saudi Arabia. A self-reporting questionnaire was used to collect the data from the respondents. The results of the study showed that the "learner – related" subscale on the success factor scale was rated as 1^st rank. “Regular attendance at lecture” item was attained the highest M+SD score (3.95 + 0.22), with high influence (UI) on the academic performance of the respondents. Meanwhile, “Reading beyond prescribed material” item was obtained the lowest M+SD score (2.84 + 1.44) with low influence (LI). Similarly, on the failure factor scale, the "learner– related" subscale was taken 1^st ranked. Moreover, "lack of attendance at lecture" item was occupied the highest M+SD score (3.73 + 0.443) as well as" lack of interest in the course" item was stated the lowest M+SD score (1.88 + 2.40). As a result of this study, " learner-related factor" was employed the first rank in both success and failure scales and most of the learner-related items have a greater impact on the students' academic performance. So, this study recommended to administrators, lecturers, academic advisors to carry out more studies on students' academic performance factors, with specific focus on the ways which provide the students with the important skills which help them to overcome and manage these factors which contributed to their academic performance negatively.

Keywords: Reflections, Nursing Students' Perceptions, Academic Performance, Success, Failure, Influencing Factors