Guidelines for enhanced student support to part-time Bachelor of Science in nursing students in Kenya

Abstract

There is evidence that a higher percentage of registered nurses’ workforce with a bachelor’s degree has been associated with better patient outcomes including lower hospital mortality. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2009 passed a resolution urging its member states to scale up nursing education to a bachelor’s level. In 2010, the Institute for Medicine recommended that 80% of the registered nurse workforce should be trained at the bachelor’s degree level by 2020. Registered nurses upgrading their qualifications enter university as mature and part-time students. Studies have shown that mature and part-time students in universities have higher attrition than their full-time peers. They are less likely to access extra support and personal development opportunities available at university, have a history of campus isolation and have fewer opportunities to engage on campus. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the support needs of part-time Bachelor of Science students in Kenya to develop guidelines for enhanced student support. An exploratory descriptive qualitative design was used. In phase I, the researcher utilised focus group discussions to explore needs and perceived support with 100 part-time BScN students in the four Kenyan universities. In phase II, part-time Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) support needs, and enablers and barriers to the provision of support to part-time BScN students, were explored through individual interviews of ten educators of part-time BScN students. Data were analysed using Tesch’s protocol of qualitative data analysis. Data were coded by two researchers who agreed on the final codes. Four themes emerged from phase I data: resource needs, psychological needs, curriculum redesign needs, and policy needs. Four themes emerged from phase II data: learning needs, resources need, adult students’ needs and psychosocial needs. The findings of the two phases were integrated to form five themes: support as resources provision, support for learning needs, support through curriculum review, support through policy formulation and need for psychosocial support. The findings of phases I and II informed the development of guidelines and their associated recommendations for implementation were developed and validated by experts. The guidelines propose evidence-based recommendations for universities offering part-time BScN programmes, nurse educators teaching part-time BScN students, university education regulators, and regulators of nursing education and practice.