Persistence factors described by nursing students of African descent: A narrative inquiry

Abstract

<p>High attrition rates among nursing students of African descent have resulted in a nursing workforce that lacks diversity. Research has largely focused on the obstacles facing students who dropped out of their nursing programs, including financial constraints, academic issues, and personal challenges. Few studies have considered the students who persisted. The purpose of this qualitative dissertation study was to examine the factors that contributed to the persistence of students of African descent enrolled in nursing programs in community colleges as described in the stories and reflections of recently graduated alumni. Data was obtained with the use of two research questions (1) What stories do recently graduated registered nurses tell about their nursing programs in community colleges, the nursing faculty, their peers and the curriculum? (2) What stories do recently graduated nurses of African descent tell about the factors contributing to their persistence in community college (non-cognitive and cultural factors)? Participants were 15 registered nurses of African descent who have successfully completed five different nursing programs at community colleges and have graduated within the past five years. Two semi-structured one-to-one interviews were conducted to examine success strategies utilized by nursing students of African descent at community colleges. Data analysis revealed three themes: 1) Early departure of new nurses 2). Stringent nursing program failure policies 3) A triad of success strategies. Each of these themes provide evidence to support the reasons, obstacles and tools to increase the number of nursing students of African descent graduating from community colleges every year. The major findings of this study include program policies that were not student friendly, the significance of peer support and the value of a study plan early in the curriculum. Two key recommendations resulting from this study are Community College nursing programs and curriculum need to be revised to take into consideration the current landscape of events in healthcare and adequate remediation courses following course failure with an earlier return to the program. Conclusions were formulated based on the revealed need for facilitators of retention programs to adopt suggested ways that would embed knowledge of these success strategies into their programs resulting in improved course completion rates.</p>