Factors accelerating nursing program completion among nurse-students: a case of St. Camillus School of Nursing, Tabaka-Kisii County

Abstract

Training as a professional nurse is a very pertinent undertaking for any candidate considering a long-term career in nursing. It requires a combination of certain intrinsic and extrinsic factors to be able to sustain appropriate and satisfactory success and achievement throughout the training period to ensure a timely completion of the program whose absence could have direct impact on completion rates. This study assessed the factors accelerating the nursing program completion among student nurses: a case of St. Camillus School of Nursing, Tabaka. Specifically, it sought to: establish the demographic, determine the individual, the socio-economic and the learner’s environmental factors associated with the nursing program completion. The study was guided by the self-determination theory (SDT). A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was utilized with a mixed method approach to data collection. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to obtain quantitative data while an open-ended interviewer-administered guide was used to collect qualitative data. A total of 166 students were recruited using stratified random sampling based on the year of study for quantitative data. For qualitative data, 15 participants were purposively sampled. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS, and qualitative data was managed using thematic analysis. The study established that majority of the nursing students at St. Camillus School of Nursing are aged between 18 to 24 years, with majority being female, single and whose parents’ attained a tertiary education level. Additionally, majority of the students reside from school premises. Binary logistic regression confirmed that marital status, main reason for pursuing nursing studies and learning environment were associated with nursing program completion. The regression model was: Nursing program completion= Marital status, student’s passion to care for the sick, learning environment. The study concluded that demographic, individual and learning environment are significantly associated with nursing program completion among the students at SCSN, Tabaka. The study recommended the St. Camillus School of Nursing to enhance the learning environment by providing enough learning resources like classrooms, clinical laboratories, adoption of technology, hire enough nursing instructors and provide adequate teaching materials to enable students complete their training as scheduled.