The educational participation of the female registered nurse baccalaureate student: Motivation, barriers, and persistence to complete the degree

Although adult women now comprise a majority of students in higher education, too little attention has been paid to their motivations to obtain their degrees or the values that they place in obtaining advanced education. The purpose of this study was to explore the RN students' reasons for returning to school, the limiting factors (barriers) that they perceived in the educational process, and the various support systems that were utilized as they completed their baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN).; A descriptive, correlational, survey design was utilized for this study. The target population for this research included all RN baccalaureate students who were enrolled in degree completion programs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Delaware. A convenience sample was used to collect data from RN-BSN students in the three states, with an effort made to obtain a representative sample from urban, suburban, and rural areas.; The Educational Participation Socio-Demographic Questionnaire was utilized in order to obtain basic demographic details, as well as information related to RN students returning to school for the BSN degree. The Women's Role Strain Inventory, developed by Lengacher (1997a) to assess role strain in women who have multiple roles, was also distributed to the RN students in this study.; The data were analyzed utilizing Pearson Product Moment Correlation in order to examine the relationship between the predictor variables and the type of basic RN program. A significant correlation (r = .128, p < .05) was noted between the perceived Barriers to Education and the RNs' Primary Source of Emotional Support. While a majority of the RN-BSN students (69%) scored high on the WRSI, Measures of Association between the two basic programs and the role strain scores were not significant.; It is suggested that RN-BSN faculty and administrators identify and meet the needs of the RN students in order to facilitate their successful completion of the BSN degree. The identification of variables related to role strain in the RN-BSN population can lead to the development of support programs that may decrease the effects of these variables, and in turn reduce the attrition rate of this group of students.