FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF NURSING STUDENTS IN DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER ONE
1:0 INTRODUCTIONS
Academic performance according to the Cambridge university reporter (2003) is frequently defined in terms of examination performance. Mac-farlance (2002) defined academic performance as the ability of student to cope with their studies as well as how various tasks assigned to them by their instructors are accomplished, it include the ability to study and remember facts and to be able to express such knowledge gained either verbally or in writing (Mac-farlace 2002). Students academic gain and learning performance is affected by numerous factors including gender, age, parental social economic status, medium of teaching, workload of course of study, student-teacher relationship, school background, academic environment, teaching aids and infrastructures e.t.c.
1:1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
A major challenge facing higher education institutions around the world is how to achieve quality outcome for students in an increasingly globalized and competitive environment (Harvey and Kamvounias 2008). Education is a reciprocal process, during which the learners acquire
knowledge, ability and self thought (University of Wisconsin 2001). Nursing education is designed to educate and train nursing students to become competent and qualified professional Nurses (Mellish, Brink and Paton 2009). In order to provide skilled nursing care, professional Nurses must be educated and trained to make certain skill and be knowledgeable about the science of nursing. (Mellish et al., 2009.) According to Leufer (2007) nursing student need
the appropriate knowledge and skill to enable them to deliver safe and competent care to their patient, according to Mellish et al., (2009) students enter the nursing programmes with dierent
expectations of what is to be learnt, different intellectual skills, types and level of motivation and different interest.
Furthermore, professional Nurses can also come from different culture, backgrounds, consequently, professional Nurse education, who are responsible for educating and training these students have a challenging task. Many researcher conducted detailed studies on factors contributing to student performance at different study level.Â
