LEARNING DIFFICULTIES OF NURSING STUDENTS RELATED TO THE OVERLOADED STUDY PROGRAM, CURRICULA AND DISPROPORTIONATE RATIO OF THEORY TO PRACTICE
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction : Student- centered approaches to teaching and learning have grown in popularity over the years. Addressing the challenges that nursing students face during their study period is an important part of the performance of the academic institutions that provide their education. Identifying and finding solutions for students' concerns requires continual endeavor through the involvement of many decision-making actors. Currently, the programs of students studying nursing have a counterproductive division of the time that students spend in the classroom versus that in the clinical practice. The programs are disproportionately heavily loaded with theory which misses the main point of their educational goal and causes the students to have severe concerns on how this will affect their professional training.
Purpose: The study purpose is identifying the impact of curriculum design and number of subject per semester on students’ performance.
Method: The qualitative method of research and focus group discussion was used to carry out the research. The data was collected through a group discussion with first-year, second-year and third-year bachelor's students. Two semi-structured discussions were held with each group for each year of study.
Results: The conclusions drawn from this study helped to identify the expected concerns of the students and others that were not expected. They revealed that they face great difficulties during the period of study. The following problems were identified: insufficient hours of engagement in clinical practice, shortage of clinical practice instructors, the use of passive teaching methods, assessment of student’s performance not based on defined standards, a large number of subjects to study each semester and not sufficient time to study as it is expected from the students'.
Recommendations: Establishing a task force to immediately analyze and solve the students concerns in order to facilitate an effective learning process.
Unification of teaching programs according to the recommendations made by the European Union and WHO on creating interactive, empowering, student-centered learning environments.
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