Exploring the Factors Affecting On-Time Program Completion Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students at the College of Nursing –Jeddah

Abstract

Background

With the amalgamation of nursing education into universities, there have been many questions have been the basis for various studies, related to the completion of nursing programs which researchers have conducted in the effort of understanding the components that influence the on-time program completion among Baccalaureate nursing students.

Method

The study was conducted in the college of Nursing, KSAU-HS, Jeddah, KSA. A mixed method approach was used. Data was collected using a convenience sampling method, a retrospective audit of student records and a questionnaire using 114 and 44 faculties. In-depth interview was also conducted with three faculties.  Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics and content analysis.

Findings

For the quantitative findings: Student records revealed that 56.2% of students completed the program on time while 20.9%  were delayed and 22.9% withdrawn during the period from the Academic year 2006-2007 till the Academic year 2015- 2016. The prevalence per stream revealed that 61.6% of students from stream 1 and 48.2% from stream 2 completed their program on time while 21.1% from stream 1 and 20.7% from stream 2 were delayed. Students scored marriage as the highest environmental barrier (M= 3.45 stream I and M=3.69 stream II) and difficult course the highest academic barrier (M= 3.76 stream I and M=3.26 stream II). Faculty score birth of a child as the highest environmental barrier (M= 4.45 and English language difficulty as the highest academic barrier (M= 4.34). For the qualitative findings the themes and subthemes that emerged included: affective factors were: honoring parents; means of escape; ownership of decisions; outside surrounding factors: the image of nursing and job security; psychological outcomes; feeling inferior, tainted personal image; academic factors; poor selection and academic overload.

Conclusion

Nursing students are challenged by various internal and external factors that impact on their ability to complete the nursing degree on time. Therefore, unfortunate as it is, the ability of nursing students to complete the nursing qualification on time may continue to be a problem of the future and might still be an area of debate in future.

Keywords: Academic lagging; on time program completion; undergraduate student retention