Factors contributing to poor performance of student nurses in anatomy and physiology

Abstract

Professional nurse training in South Africa (SA) takes place within public nursing colleges, which are spread over the nine provinces. There are 14 such public nursing colleges in SA, with 34 sub-campuses. Professional nurse training is offered in terms of regulation R425 of the Nursing Act No. 50 of 1978, leading to registration as a nurse (general, psychiatry and community) or midwife. Anatomy and physiology (A&P) is a core subject taught in the first year of training. [1] The expectation is that on completion of education and training, students should have good observational, analysis and problem-solving skills, since modern nursing requires awareness of interactions between anatomical and physiological systems in pathological processes. [2] A background in A&P for the 4-year comprehensive basic nursing course is part of strict entry requirements for nursing students. Life sciences entail basic terminology that is used in human anatomy and physiology, and therefore form part of the admission requirements for the 4-year comprehensive basic nursing course. Without passes in life sciences, nursing colleges in SA do not admit applicants, regardless of their grade 12 score, to ensure that all students have at least a foundation in A&P. [3] The entry requirements for nurse training at the public nursing colleges in SA also include a grade 12 certificate with a minimum score of 25. Admission requirements in Australia are similar to those in the colleges under study, as mathematics, science and English are the prerequisite subjects for admission. [4] In Ghana, English, mathematics, science and some age restrictions are basic requirements for admission. Unlike in SA, applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 35 years. This means that applicants under or over the stipulated age categories are excluded from the applications even if they meet the other requirements for admission. [5] Background. Student nurses in South Africa view anatomy and physiology (A&P) as the most complex subject in the nursing curriculum. Objective. To describe the factors contributing toward inconsistent and fluctuating performance among student nurses doing A&P as a subject. Methods. The study adopted a quantitative descriptive design. Census sampling was used to draw a sample size of 114 respondents. A structured self-administered questionnaire with close-ended questions was used to collect data from the six nursing campuses under study. Raw data were captured using Excel spreadsheets, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data. Results. The key findings were: (i) poor teaching strategies contributed to subject failure; (ii) lack of after-class sessions had an impact on failure; (iii) a shorter study period for examinations contributed to failure; and (iv) a language barrier also played an important role in students' failure in A&P. Conclusion. Student nurses struggle with and find A&P in nursing programmes challenging and anxiety-provoking. Nurse educators need to come up with innovative teaching strategies that w...

Utilization of student support services by undergraduate students in Nursing Education Institutions in South Africa

“…About 50% of participants disagreed that academically struggling students are identified and offered extra tutorials. This concurred with recent findings that the NEI lacked tutorials for poor-performing students, which accounted for high failure rates, authors recommended peer group teaching and tutorials (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020). Studies show a dramatic improvement in pass rate following utilization of extra tutorials (Guerra-Martín et al, 2017;Mudaly & Mtshali, 2018).…”

“…Layton (2015) argued that the tutorial system is an important teaching and learning intervention with a great potential to improve students' success rates, the small group teaching facilitates learning in a more relaxed environment. Poor academic success in the NEI is attributed to a lack of after-class sessions, the authors argued that slow learners needed more support (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020). Availability of tutorials could have addressed dispositional challenges linked to low cognitive abilities.…”

“…Moreover, with the transition of NEIs into HE, student support demands strengthening (CHE, 2014(CHE, & 2020Adi Badiozaman et al, 2020;Zulu & Mutereko, 2020). Literature show scarcity of studies on student support services at large in the NEI, however recent studies mostly focused on mentorship and tutorials (Mlaba & Emmamally, 2019;Mhlongo & Masango, 2020;Buthelezi, 2019). Given the challenges of undergraduate (UG) students' academic outcomes, the article sought to investigate the availability and utilization of student support in a KZN NEI's two campuses.…”

A Survey of Norwegian Nursing Students’ Responses to Student-Centered Small Group Learning in the Study of Human Anatomy and Physiology

“…Although the SGL was obligatory, only 56.44% (57/101) of students attended every session of SGL. The attended rate of Norwegian nursing students was slightly higher than the reported rate of African nursing students in the study of A&P (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020). These finding might be attributed to the different composition of students; African nursing students comprise a nonhomogeneous group, and many students live in rural areas far from their school (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020).…”

“…The attended rate of Norwegian nursing students was slightly higher than the reported rate of African nursing students in the study of A&P (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020). These finding might be attributed to the different composition of students; African nursing students comprise a nonhomogeneous group, and many students live in rural areas far from their school (Mhlongo & Masango, 2020). In addition, the completion rate of assigned work in each SGL session was low, and only 12% (8/100) of students completed the work every time.…”