The experience of Aboriginal nursing students at the University of Saskatchewan
Date
1998
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
In response to the changing demographics in North America, nursing
educators have attempted to recruit students from minority cultures.
However, attrition rates for minority students are high, which represents
significant losses to universities and colleges and to the profession of
nursing, in addition to the personal losses to the students.
In the province of Saskatchewan, effort has been directed towards
increasing the number of health care providers who are Aboriginal so that
more culturally appropriate care is available to a growing Aboriginal
population. This qualitative study exploring the experience of Aboriginal
nursing students at the University of Saskatchewan was undertaken to
identify factors that affected students' learning and ultimately to suggest
possible strategies to improve completion rates. Five Aboriginal nursing
students and three recent graduates of the baccalaureate program at the
University of Saskatchewan agreed to take part in the study. The participants
were interviewed once individually. Three participants were interviewed for a
second time as a group, to explore some themes more fully.
Participants identified three main factors that influenced their learning:
relationships with their families, their classmates and their teachers; certain
aspects of the teaching-learning process; and some difficulties arising from
being a university student, and more specifically a nursing student. For
teachers of Aboriginal nursing students, the findings suggest a range of
possible strategies, which could both help enhance students' learning
experience and improve retention statistics.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Community Health and Epidemiology
Program
Community Health and Epidemiology