Factors Affecting Nursing Performance
ACADEMIC FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING AT A
NURSING COLLEGE IN THE WESTERN CAPE
YOLANDE NERISSA MAGERMAN
Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Health Science in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Stellenbosch
University
SUPERVISOR: DR. E.L. STELLENBERG
MARCH 2011
DECLARATION
By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch
University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
______________________________________
YOLANDE NERISSA MAGERMAN
______________________________________
Date
Copyright © 2011 Stellenbosch University
All rights reserved.
ii
ABSTRACT
Nursing education, including the individual nurse educator, has a responsibility to society and to students for providing quality education, for maintaining the highest academic standards, for the proficient use of teaching strategies and for ensuring adequate support to learners. These standards were threatened at a particular college in the Western Cape which instigated this study.
This study aimed at investigating the academic factors that influenced learning at a particular nursing college in the Western Cape. The objectives included the following possible factors that may have contributed towards the unsatisfactory, academic performances 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 quantitative approach. The target population (N = 963)
NURSING COLLEGE IN THE WESTERN CAPE
YOLANDE NERISSA MAGERMAN
Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Health Science in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Stellenbosch
University
SUPERVISOR: DR. E.L. STELLENBERG
MARCH 2011
DECLARATION
By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch
University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
______________________________________
YOLANDE NERISSA MAGERMAN
______________________________________
Date
Copyright © 2011 Stellenbosch University
All rights reserved.
ii
ABSTRACT
Nursing education, including the individual nurse educator, has a responsibility to society and to students for providing quality education, for maintaining the highest academic standards, for the proficient use of teaching strategies and for ensuring adequate support to learners. These standards were threatened at a particular college in the Western Cape which instigated this study.
This study aimed at investigating the academic factors that influenced learning at a particular nursing college in the Western Cape. The objectives included the following possible factors that may have contributed towards the unsatisfactory, academic performances 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 quantitative approach. The target population (N = 963)
Bibliography: achieve quality outcomes for students in an increasingly globalised and competitive environment (Harvey & Kamvounias, 2008:31) during which the learners acquire knowledge, ability, and self awareness in gaining diversity to thought (University of Wisconsin, 2001:2) educate and train nursing students to become competent and qualified professional nurses (Mellish, Brink & Paton, 2009:6) professional nurses must be educated and trained to master certain skills and be knowledgeable about the science of nursing (Mellish et al., 2009:6-7) Leufer (2007:322), nursing students need the appropriate knowledge and skills to enable them to deliver safe and competent care to their patients. According to Mellish et al. (2009:63), professional nurses enter the nursing programme with different expectations of what is to be learnt, different intellectual skills, types and