The relationship among BSN students' employment, educational, and health-related characteristics and semester grades: A multi-site study.

Abstract

While many nursing students work during clinical semesters, little is known about employment characteristics and relationships among employment, academic success and other variables. To describe the demographic, educational, and health-related characteristics of clinical nursing students and the relationships among employment, semester grades and other characteristics. Descriptive, correlational. Participants were BSN students (N=1014) from four southern US universities who were 22.6years old (SD=4.6) and most likely to be Caucasian (N=832, 82%) never married (N=852, 84%) females (N=886, 87%) with mean GPA of 2.97 (SD=0.61). Most students (N=670, 66%) reported semester employment averaging 16.7 (SD=8.3) hours/week. Although no relationship was found between hours worked and semester GPA (r=-0.017, p=.588), race/ethnicity (F [2, 1003]=19.87, p<.0001) and nighttime sleep hours (F [3, 997]=7.841, p<.0001) had significant effects. Students working in healthcare had higher GPAs (M=3.09, SD=0.61, p<.0001) than non-healthcare workers. Students working daytime (M=3.04, SD=0.65, p=.031) or irregular shifts (M=3.04, SD=0.56, p=.036) had higher GPAs than students working evenings. While employment status did not influence GPA, race/ethnicity and amount of reported sleep did. Additional research is needed to provide evidence-based advisement recommendations for employed students.