Factors that motivate students to succeed at a nursing college in the Western Cape

• Main Author: Abraham, Beena
• Other Authors: Phetlhu, Deliwe Rene
• Language: en
• Published: The University of the Western Cape 2018
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5771

Magister Curationis - Mcur === The role of nursing education is to strengthen and develop human values and feelings in nursing students, aiming to make them intellectuals, as well as skilled persons. The nurse educator and nursing institutions are responsible for providing quality education and maintaining high academic standards. However, the standards are threatened due to the nursing students' relatively poor performance over the past few years at the nursing college selected for this study. Despite the reported poor performance, there are success stories that are observed amid daily challenges encountered by the nursing students in this study context. This study aimed at determining and describing the factors that motivate nursing students to succeed and achieve better learning outcomes in a nursing college in the Western Cape. The Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (ARCS) model was used as a framework to guide the study. A quantitative approach with a cross sectional, descriptive design was followed. The target population consisted of 768 nursing students from the second to the fourth year, who were registered for the nursing qualification in the selected nursing college. Two hundred and fifty-seven (257) participants were randomly sampled, and a self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. The reliability of the instrument was confirmed using the Cronbach's Alpha test and the final scored for the instrument was 0.8 after two questions were omitted. The validity was maintained through the involvement of experts to evaluate whether the content of the instrument measured what was intended. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22.0. Descriptive statistics were applied to test for frequencies in responses, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to find the statistically significant differences among the groups in the study. Ethics approval from the University of the Western Cape and the participating nursing college was obtained.Throughout the study, respect for persons, beneficence and justice as ethics principles were maintained. The study revealed that, although most students felt that the topics of their studies were relevant to their lives, specific issues, such as the use of humour in teaching, inadequate academic support and an unsatisfactory learning environment, still prevailed. Based on the above research findings among others, suggestions were drafted by the researcher to increase factors that would motivate nursing students based on the ARCS model to convey improvement in the teaching of nursing students, resulting in their success in their institution, as well as the Western Cape region.