Nursing student profiles and occurrence of early academic failure: findings from an explorative European study

Background: In the European context regulated by the Bologna Process principles, there is little evidence to date on the different profiles, if any, of nursing students enrolled in the 1st academic year and their academic outcomes. Aims: To describe and compare the nursing student profiles and their academic outcomes at the end of the 1st year across European Bachelor of Nursing Science (BNS) courses. Design: An exploratory multicentre cohort study involving five countries: Nursing students who were enrolled in nursing programmes for the academic year 2011/2012 in the participating BNS courses, willing to participate and regularly admitted to the 2nd academic year, were included in this study undertaken in 2013. Individual and faculty level variables were collected after having ensured the validity of the tools developed in English and then appropriately translated into the language of each participating country. Findings: A total of 378/710 (53.2%) students participated in the study. They attended from 390 to 810 h of lessons, while clinical experience ranged from 162 to 536 h. The students reported a mean average age of 21.4 (Confidence of Interval [CI] 95%, 21.0-22.3) and foreign students were limited in number (on average 3.7%). The students reported adopting mainly individual learning strategies (92.9%), duplicating notes or lecture notes prepared by professors (74.4%), and concentrating their study before exams (74.6%). The majority reported experiencing learning difficulties (49.7%) and a lack of academic support (84.9%). Around 33.2% reported economic difficulties and the need to work while studying nursing on average for 24 h/week. Personal expectations regarding the nursing role were different (45.6%) than the role encountered during the 1st year, as learning workloads were higher (57.2%) with regard to expectations. Around one-third of students reported the intention to leave nursing education while the proportion of those reporting early academic failure was on average 5.6%. Conclusions: More strategies aimed at harmonising nursing education across Europe, at supporting nursing students' learning processes during 1st year, and identifying factors influencing their intention to leave and their academic failure, are recommended.