Factors Affecting Nursing Students’ Choice of Bachelor Nursing Program and its Relation to their Achievement

Abstract

Nursing educational program meet the current and future social needs by preparing nurses through practical diploma, associated degree programs, and professional nurses by bachelor nursing programs. Nurses with bachelor degree in nursing demonstrated more nursing competence. Because of the highly required knowledge and skills in nursing, a high level of nursing education is greatly needed. So, it is recommended to increase number of highly qualified nurses by starting to increase the number of nursing colleges and gradually replacing the secondary nursing school by technical institutes. Thus, it is essential to understand why students are choosing nursing as a career. If those reasons are understood, more appropriate recruitment strategies can be developed. Aim of the study was to identify factors affecting students’ selection of bachelor nursing program and its relation to their achievement. The study was conducted at Faculty of Nursing at Mansoura University. The total number of students who completed fourth year was 305 for academic years 2003/2004. Only 230 students were willing to participate in the present study. Two tools were used for data collection: Questionnaire sheet was developed by the researchers based on reviewing literature to identify demographic characteristics of students’ parents as occupation and level of education, past experience of students regarding nursing, factors affecting students’ choosing bachelor nursing program, students opinions regarding nursing profession, and finally, students suggestions for improving nursing profession. Besides, retrospective audit was used to identify students’ achievement from academic year 1999/2000 to academic year 2003/2004. A major finding of this study was that there was no statistical significance difference between factors affecting students’ choosing bachelor nursing program and their achievement, and also between students’ responses regarding their options about nursing profession and their achievement.