The Story of us: Academic Experiences of Nurse Learners

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the academic experiences of the nurse learners. The researchers meant to gain information regarding the academic experiences which includes factors affecting their study and their coping mechanisms under it. Descriptive phenomenology was employed in this study to explore the academic experiences of the nurse learners. The researchers conducted the study through focus group discussion followed by an in-depth face-to-face interview to gather more specific information about the participant. A total of 12 participants for the study were chosen through maximum variation sampling, employing the inclusion criteria. Furthermore, the method of triangulation was employed to identify the commonalities and reconcile the narrative data obtained to ensure pure description of the data, consistent use of the method of triangulation and the observation of bracketing, member check or participant’s validation during the interview process and at the conclusion of the study to further increase credibility and validity of the data. There were five themes identified, namely: (1) OPENING SEQUENCE, which talks about the nurse learners’ way of choosing their profession. (2) STORYLINE OF THE LEARNERS or the sum total of their experiences while studying. This was further divided into six subthemes along with their subcategories. The main subthemes are: romance, comedy, drama, horror, action, and fantasy. Romance talks about their inspirations while studying. There are three subcategories which include my teacher is my inspiration, this focuses on how their teacher influences, motivates, and inspires them. Next subcategory is family love telling us how their parents supported and helped them throughout their studies and third loving my studies, which tells us how did the nurse learners who took Nursing by force start to love their studies. Second subtheme is comedy. Participants experienced enjoyable and happy moments with their teachers (the funny ones) because of the lively discussions, classmates (laughing with the jokers) and even in BSU itself (the circus). Third subtheme is drama. The participants also experienced ups and downs that brought tears, disappointments, and sadness to them. Fourth subtheme includes horror which represents their terrible hindrances that affect their studies. Under horror, the participants experienced: to have difficulty with their teachers (the dementor in front of me); to have influential friends who bother them in their studies (the ghost around me); to have hard time in their studies because of their study habits (monsters inside of me); to have fear in failing grades (fear of falling); requirements being given by the instructors at the same time (books of the dead); and to have financial problem and lack of resources (zombie tsunami). Fifth subtheme is action of their coping mechanism to their hindrances. Participants face their stressors either individually (one for all) or with their companies (all for one). Sixth theme fantasy of their imaginations in school and at home. (3) Bloopers include the extracurricular activities being done in school. (4) End credits involve all the participants’ activities after school. (5) Bonus scenes, these are their plans after graduation. Based on the findings, we concluded that nurse learners’ academic experiences varies from each year level. Their experiences are always accompanied by negative and positive experiences. It shows that nurse learners who chose the program have better academic experiences than those who did not and every nurse learner has his own factors that affect their studies and that they display their own coping mechanism for each hindrance they experienced. Thus, almost everything around them can affect their academic experiences. Based on the result of the study, the following are thereby recommended by the researchers: (1) Nurse learners should be open experiences and learn to these varied experiences. Nurse learners should be free to decide on what program they want to take. (2) Nurse learners should: develop healthy study habits as early as they can, this will help them to continue and pursue their study; practice time management and focus on their studies; must learn to not allow bad habits overcome their performance. (3) Nurse learners should: strengthen or maintain their coping mechanisms; identify new coping mechanisms; establish new support person. (4) CN must provide avenues for the faculty to undergo seminars to improve their instruction. CN should continue to monitor and evaluate the curriculum provided to the nursing students, and to continue to evolve in Outcome-Based Education to provide better academic experiences. (5) Further studies should: be conducted regarding the culture of learning of nurse learners in BSU; be conducted regarding the lived academic experience on the honor students; and, be done regarding the implementation of OBE in BSU.