FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEORY-PRACTICE INTEGRATION

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

CHAPTER 4 Results and discussions

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter described the methodology of this study. The focus of this chapter is on presentation and description of the results. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the factors that affect theory-practice integration of student nurses at a selected campus of a nursing college in the Limpopo Province.
The objectives of the study were to:
Explore and describe the factors that affect theory-practice integration as viewed by the student nurses at a selected campus of a nursing college in the Limpopo province.
Explore and describe the factors that affect theory-practice integration as viewed by the nurse educators at a selected campus of a nursing college in the Limpopo province.

 DATA COLLECTION

The data for the student nurses was collected by means of structured questionnaires except three open ended questions. The questionnaire for student nurses comprised of five sections:

• Section A: Responses on demographic profile
• Section B: Responses on educational background
• Section C:  Responses on theory-practice integration
• Section D: Responses on learning preferences
• Section E:  Responses on assessment

The data for the nurse educators was collected by means of structured questionnaires except nine open-ended questions. The questionnaire for nurse educators comprised of four sections:

• Section A: Responses on demographic profile
• Section B: Responses on theory
• Section C: Responses on practice
• Section D: Responses on assessment

The population in this study consisted of student nurses enrolled for the four year comprehensive programme at a selected nursing campus of a nursing college in the Limpopo province and nurse educators responsible for the facilitation of learning. A sample of 106 student nurses in their second (n=36), third (n=30) and fourth (n=40) year level and (n=9) nurse educators responded.
 

RESULTS

A statistician analysed the data that was captured of the 106 completed questionnaires from the student nurses and 9 from the nurse educators using the SPSS version 14.0 computer program. The results were presented in frequencies, percentages, graphs and tables. The results of the second, third and fourth year students were combined except in section 4.3.6.1 to 4.3.6.2 where cross tabulation amongst the three levels was reflected. The statistician supplied results in fractions for example item 4.3.1.1. The ages of students were between 16-19 (3.8%) years and for this study it was rounded off to 4%. This implies that all the results were rounded off to whole percentages. Section D of the questionnaire was subjected to the reliability test using Cronbach`s Alpha value. Comparison of the mean scores for each factor of the learning preferences in section D of the questionnaire was perfomed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique and non-parametric methods, namely the Wilcoxon/Kruskal-Wallis test (see details under section 4.3.8). The conventions for chapter 4 are as follows:

• N=total number of respondents
• n=total number of responses
• f=freqencies

Student nurses: Section 1 – Biographic information
In this section, the biographic information of student nurses was required. This includes the ages, gender and first language of students.
 Age groups of student nurses
In this sub-section, the ages of the respondents were indicated Four percent (n=4) of the student nurses were between the age of 16-19 years, 90% (n=96) between 20-29 and 6% (n=6) between 30-39 years. The findings reveal that the majority namely, 90% of the student nurses were in their transition from late adolescent to early adulthood which is something to be considered in the learning situation (SANC1992:6). According to the SANC (2009(a)), the average age of students who commenced their training in 2009 was 26, with a minimum age 17 and 55 as the maximum age. Salamonson and Andrew (2006:342) are of the opinion that age and ethnicity are known to be predictors of academic achievement.
Gender of student nurses
In this sub-section the gender of student nurses are indicated.
The findings indicated that 26% (n=28) of the student nurses were males and 74% (n=78) were females. According to SANC’s (2009(b)) national statistics, student nurses who were enrolled for the four-year comprehensive programme in 2009 accounted for 13342 females as compared to 3835 males. In the Limpopo province alone, 1232 of the students enrolled for the four-year comprehensive programme were females as compared to 480 males. The findings reveal that although there are males who enter into the nursing profession, nursing is still regarded as a female dominated profession. This is consistent with the views of Muldoon and Reilly (2003:93).
First language of student nurses
This sub-section investigated the most prominent or home language of the respondents.
This study revealed that 24% (n=26) of the student nurses’ first language was Shangaan, 18% (n=19) were Venda speaking, 55% (n=58) Sepedi, 1% (n=1) English and 2% (n=2) other languages. The majority, namely 55% of student nurses indicated that their home language was Sepedi.
These findings are supported by Van Rensburg (2009:184) who indicates that English in South Africa is the medium of instruction in higher education and that most students are taught in a language other than their first language. The research findings in a study conducted by Zollo (1998) as cited in Salamonson and Andrew (2006:342) revealed that student nurses from non-English speaking backgrounds were likely to underperform and show high failure rates in their first year of nursing training.

CHAPTER 1 Orientation to the study
1.2 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.5 FRAME OF REFERENCE
1.6 DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS
1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.8 PHASES OF THE RESEARCH
1.9 ORIENTATION OF THE RESEARCH SETTING
1.10 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
1.11 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.12 LIMITATIONS
1.13 THE ROLE OF THE RESEARCHER
1.14 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1.15 LAYOUT OF THE REPORT
1.16 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 2 Literature review
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.3 FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEORY-PRACTICE INTEGRATION
2.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3 Research methodology
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH SETTING
3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.4 RESEARCH METHOD
3.5 DATA COLLECTION
3.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
3.7 DATA ANALYSIS
3.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
3.9 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4 Results and discussions
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 DATA COLLECTION
4.3 RESULTS
4.4 DATA ANALYSIS – NURSE EDUCATORS
4.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5 Conclusions, limitations and recommendations
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.4 LIMITATIONS
5.5 CONCLUSION
LIST OF SOURCES
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEORY-PRACTICE INTEGRATION OF STUDENT NURSES AT A SELECTED CAMPUS OF A NURSING COLLEGE IN THE LIMPOPO PROVINCE