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Ryan, Gemma Sinead and Davies, Fiona
(2014).
Abstract
Student nurse attrition is a challenge for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) (Ascend Learning, 2012; RCN, 2008). Reasons for leaving a programme of study are varied; including personal, financial issues or practice placement experiences. Research has shown systematic and integrated support mechanisms may improve attrition rates (Kift, 2009; Ascend Learning, 2012). Therefore, student advice and support should be responsive, accessible, interactive and high quality to meet the needs of nursing students. This project aimed to explore the sources of, and support needs of nursing and allied health students in a UK university to inform the development of an online, interactive support tool ‘SignpOSt’; so that students may be ‘signposted’ to appropriate support and advice ‘anytime, anywhere’ as long as they have internet access. The goal of ‘SignpOSt’ is to enable students to access: ‘the right support, at the right time, from the right place’ Focus groups were carried out with 14, 3rd year students and 8 academic staff including personal tutors, programme/module leaders. Thematic analysis of transcribed data under four key themes for support and advice 1. Financial 2. Programme 3. Personal 4.Study/academic, found poor student knowledge and little clarity of responsibilities of academic staff and services leads to students sourcing support from the wrong place at the wrong time. Students valued the speed and accessibility of information from informal, programme specific Facebook groups. Conversely, there were also concerns about the accuracy of these. ‘SignpOSt’ is in currently under development with plans for implementation and evaluation as an online, interactive support/advice tool based on the four themes (Fig.1,2). Roles and responsibilities of academic staff are not always clear to students; these have been re-confirmed within the tool. Further research into the informal support found through online social networks may provide further insight into the ‘reality’ of nursing student support needs.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
