An investigation of the role of faculty and peers in students' decisions to persist in a baccalaureate nursing progra

The growing nursing shortage creates an environment where patient care is in jeopardy. While the shortage is the result of a number of factors, the most often cited is a decline in enrollment and an increase in the drop out rate in colleges of nursing. To further intensify this shortage, experienced nurses are leaving bedside care because of career changes, retirement, or the desire to practice in areas outside of the hospital. Consequently, the number of new graduate nurses available to fill the vacant nursing positions is inadequate. The implication for the health care facility and the practitioner is greater liability, and the implication for the health care consumer is an unsafe environment. Therefore, success of students in nursing programs is a concern for the entire health care industry and for the public.;If nurse educators and administrators hope to make a difference in the present level of health care, it is important that they gain an understanding of the reasons that some nursing students complete their program of studies while other nursing students leave higher education before they graduate. Further, it is equally important to determine if students' decisions to persist or to leave is influenced by interactions with nursing faculty and nursing peers. It is through gaining an understanding of these issues that relationships in higher education will be altered and student retention will be promoted. When educational experiences are such that the number of students who remain in nursing programs increases, it will be then that the present nursing shortage will be alleviated and safe care will be provided for consumers. To gain insight into the educational experiences of baccalaureate nursing students, a qualitative study was conducted using a hermeneutic phenomenology design. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how interactions with nursing faculty and nursing peers served as motivation for students to persist in the nursing program.;To meet the purpose of this study, an interview technique using open-ended questions was used to elicit responses from 10 students at one college of nursing. Participants were asked to discuss interactions with nursing faculty and nursing peers that were most memorable, how those interactions influenced them to stay, and to explain why they remained in the program. Using an analysis methodology developed in 1978 by Colaizzi, responses were clustered into themes and patterns that best explained participants' perceptions of those interactions.;Analyses of the participants' responses indicate that students entered the nursing profession because of the opportunity to provide care for others. Because their motivation to enter the program was based on the desire to provide care, participants expected that interactions with nursing faculty and nursing peers would be based on care and respect. When interactions were less-than-optimal, participants indicated that feelings of vulnerability, anger, and powerlessness resulted. When interactions met the participants' expectations, a sense of self-efficacy resulted and their choice of career was affirmed. Participants indicated that their intentions to leave the nursing program surfaced after faculty interactions failed to demonstrate professional behavior. Interactions with peers were most often cited as a motivator to persist; however, no participant indicated that interactions with faculty were a motivator to persist.