Understanding the psychology of seeking support to increase Health Science student engagement in academic support services. A Practice Report

Abstract

Increasing student engagement within higher education academic support services is a constant challenge. Whilst engagement with support is positively associated with successful retention, and non-engagement connected to attrition, the most vulnerable students are often the least likely to engage. Our data has shown that Health Science students are reluctant to engage with academic support services despite being made aware of their academic deficiencies. The "psychology of seeking support" was used as a lens to identify some of the multifaceted issues around student engagement. The School of Health Sciences made attendance at support courses compulsory for those students who were below the benchmark score in a post entrance literacy test. Since the policy change was implemented, there has been a 50% reduction in the fail rate of "at risk" students in a core literacy unit. These findings are encouraging and will help reduce student attrition in the long term.

Stressors and coping strategies among physiotherapy students: Towards an integrated support structure

“…As reported in other studies (Divaris et al 2013;Mokhtari et al 2013;Makhal et al 2015), academic factors were linked to stress experienced by students in this study (see Table 2). Academic support, however, should be offered from the pre-clinical years, and this is supported by Hoyne and McNaught (2013) who indicated that academic support courses should be compulsory, especially for health care students because of their reluctance to voluntarily attend such sessions. Esa et al (2010) also identified an increased level of academic stress among university students because of a lack of soft skills which might be addressed by academic support courses in early study years.…”

“…The first and most important directive relates to the need for the integration of emotional and academic support within one support structure, as existing structures, described in literature, focused only on one of these aspects (Dawson et al 2014;Hoyne & McNaught 2013;Regehr et al 2013). Both academic and emotional aspects were noted as major stressors in our study (see Table 2), indicating the integration of these aspects within a student's frame of reference.…”

“…During 2012, additional academic support was implemented for first-year students by means of a series of institutional, compulsory academic support lectures. These lectures include the use of technology at university, prioritising and goalsetting, memory and information management, decisionmaking skills, motivation, creative and critical thinking as well as academic literacy as supported by Hoyne andMcNaught (2013), andEsa et al (2010). In 2017, orientation lectures by the Student Academic Support Practitioner were implemented.…”

“…External support structures for university students are widely described in literature and can be divided into academic support (Dawson et al 2014;Hoyne & McNaught 2013), emotional support (Regehr, Glancy & Pitts 2013) or an integration of academic and emotional support through mentoring (Gershenfeld 2014). Because of the nature of stressors experienced by health care students during clinical training, emotional support structures for these students are more frequently described in literature than academic support structures.…”

“…This, however, does not imply that health care students do not need or could not benefit from academic support and mentoring. Hoyne and McNaught (2013) found that health care students with known academic difficulties were unwilling to engage with academic support structures, necessitating the implementation of compulsory academic support for students performing below a set benchmark. The authors of this article, however, found little evidence of an external support structure that integrates emotional support, academic support and mentoring as a comprehensive approach in managing stress among health care students.…”