Institutional Characteristics Influencing Bachelor of Science Nursing Student Performance in the Nursing Council of Kenya Licensure Examinations in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya has seen a paradigm shift in nursing education sector recording high rates of enrolment of students to training while their performance in Nursing Council of Kenya (NCK) examination remained variable and unpredictable. This study evaluated performance of BSc nursing students in NCK examinations by examining institutional characteristics in relation to performance. NCK identified it as priority area of research. The study used qualitative and quantitative approach to collect data retrospectively. The records of 1292 students who sat examinations in the period between the period July 2012-June 2015 from NCK nurses database was used. Cluster and purposive sampling were done for key informants interviewed from nursing schools. Quantitative data was converted from MS Access to SAS and analyzed. Odds ratio was used to measure strength of association between institutional characteristics and performance with p ≤ 0.05 being considered significant. Qualitative data was recorded and transcribed for content analysis. The proportion of those who passed and aged 30 years and above (upgraders) was significantly higher than those who were less than 30 years (OR: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.2-2.2, p= 0.002). Both Class attendance policy and faculty experience had marginal positive association (OR: 0.4, 95%CI: 1.0-2.0, p=0.068) and (OR: 0.7, 95%CI: 0.5-1.0, p=0.068) respectively. Admission criteria was reported by key informants to be influencing performance, In conclusion the study identified faculty years of experience and class attendance policy were associated with performance. Mode of study was reported to influence performance by key informants. The study recommended training institutions to continue with upgrading Programmes, uphold class attendance policy, select faculty based on experience. Results can be used to predict performance and facilitate development of policies for recruitment and examination.

English Language Proficiency and Its Relationship with Academic Performance and the Nurse Licensure Examination

“…Understanding the performance of students in nursing school and the licensure examination are important to identify students who are at risk of not performing well (Oducado, 2019). Past researches have shown that various factors influence nursing students' academic performance (Belo-Delariarte, Oducado, & Penuela, 2018;Mthimunye & Daniels, 2019;Mthimunye & Daniels, 2020) and success in the licensure examination in countries like Kenya (Okanga, Ogur, & Arudo, 2017), Ghana (Amankwaa, Agyemang-Dankwah, & Boateng, 2015), USA (Kim, Nikstaitis, Park, Armstrong, & Mark, 2019) and the Philippines (Oducado, Cendaña, & Belo-Delariarte, 2019b). Prior studies indicated that English language proficiency influences the academic performance of nursing students in the Philippines (Oducado & Penuela, 2014) and Kuwait (Vidal, Labeeb, Wu, & Alhajraf, 2017).…”

Factors Influencing the Success of the National Nursing Competency Examination taken by the Nursing Diploma Students in Yogyakarta

“…The other ability of the manager is planning, managing, and evaluating the learning process of the lecturers. Okanga, Ogur, and Arudo (2017) emphasize that the experience of the faculty has a significant correlation with success in the competency examination. McDonald (2017) adds that nursing educators should provide the students with many opportunities to master the knowledge required for the licensure.…”

“…Other external factors include support from their family, peers, friends or classmates, the class room environment where the examination is held, the behavior of the lecturers, and the weather. The quality of the clinical instructors, lecturers and the learning methods provided along the program and the location where the competency examination is held are also important variables that affect the examination process (Okanga, Ogur and Arudo, 2017). Considering that there are so many factors affecting the performance of graduate nurses, especially in the national examination process, the researcher is interested in exploring the variables and predictors that affect the results of the national nursing competency examination of the 3-years nursing diploma in Yogyakarta.…”

Preparation Strategic and Results of Nursing Exam of Nursing Diploma in Indonesia

“…Age, background the culture, education background, academic accomplishments, thinking style, learning style, personality style and coping strategic style were also regarded as an intrinsic factors (Abdilah, 2016). Okanga, Ogur & Arudo (2017) also emphasized that admission criteria is an important factor that influence the exam performance of the students. The raw input of the students will be determinant element on the process and the output of learning.…”