The Characteristics of Mature Nursing Students - Essay Example

Introduction In the 2009 study “The characteristics and experiences of mature nursing ” conducted by Laura Montgomery, Etain Tansey and Sean Roe, the presence of maturity is a key factor to raising the academic quality of the nursing course and increasing the progress of the nursing education in the United Kingdom. Mature students usually display better performance in their classes compared to their younger counterparts. However, since most of them already have families, they are often beset by major financial issues, such as affordable childcare and the need for a part-time job to simultaneously support the rest of the family members and their education. What is not understandable in the study is the fact that there is too much emphasis on the difficulties faced by mature nursing students, which undermines the experiences of younger nursing students with just as much, if not more, experiences of financial and family difficulties. Thus to be fair with the rest of the student nurse population, this essay purports to critique and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the major elements of the study using a qualitative research critique framework (Nursing Planet, 2010, pp.1-2). The research aims to know how valid, relevant, and authoritative the study is for both mature students and the nursing course. Broad Title The title of the study did not capture the essence of the study nor provide an overview of it. Based on what had been personally read, there was more to the research than just the characteristics and experiences of mature nursing students. At the very least, the emphasis was on their difficulties in maintaining their education rather than on their characteristics and experiences while studying the course. The research title would have been tighter if it made mention of the difficulties that characterized mature nursing students which formed part of their characteristics—and not necessarily on their collective characteristics and experiences. Furthermore, the title needs to be more specific. Its broadness can result to several implications or perhaps even to a misunderstanding of the real contents of the research. The study, upon further introspection, generally delved into the challenges met by mature students and why they experienced such challenges in the first place. These unfortunately were disregarded during the formulation of the title. Critique on the Study’s Aims, Rationale and Claims The study’s aims, which involved the exploration of “the characteristics of mature nursing students, including how they perceive themselves” and identification of “the problems they experience, which may influence whether they continue with their course,” seem open-ended. After the students’ characters as well as their self-perceptions were indeed explored and their problems identified, the researchers proceeded no further. When all was said and done, the real question remained unanswered: what then? The research drew no plans of influencing future studies to better the situation of mature nursing student in their respective universities. There was also no clear plan to make universities aware of the difficulties faced by mature nursing students, which may result to the creation of policies and special grants that may benefit them. Perhaps because of the lack of a clear rationale, the research aims were quite passive and not proactive. Indeed, there may have been a detailed description of the troubles mature nursing students had to go through in pursuing a nursing education but these troubles tend to be invalid without proper comparative basis. Since when one speaks of financial difficulties and family problems, these experiences are common everywhere, notwithstanding the student’s civil status (whether he or she is married or single) and level of maturity. Ambiguity in Respondents’ Background and Survey Results The study’s findings confirm the claims that have been pointed out earlier in the essay: there is more emphasis on the monetary and family difficulties of mature nursing students as evidenced by three of the themes (i.e. motivations for entering the course, problems affecting mature nursing students, and mostly the negative differences between mature and younger students). Not only that, the background of the respondents who contributed to the study results was rather questionable. There was no indication whether these respondents were erstwhile or continuing mature nursing students. In fact, the researchers did not provide details, which may have greatly affected the authoritativeness and credibility of the findings and the quality of the study as a whole. Take for instance this answer given by a respondent under the motivation theme: “I had to drop out ten years ago and always regretted it (Respondent A).” The answer does not speak much of what motivated this particular mature student to enter the nursing field. Respondent A’s response could be hastily misunderstood as someone who took the course years ago and was only motivated to continue it out of regret. Although this might be true for some, this does not hold well for the reputation of present, future and past mature students, whom the study placed in such a high pedestal (i.e. high academic performance). The response also indicated that the research did not have a proper timeline. It was indefinite for how long the study had been conducted and from which universities the respondents came from. This particular response from a respondent also projected a negative connotation for mature students and exposed certain inconsistencies in the themes the researchers came up with during their study: “[I am] fitting in studying alongside running a home and looking after the children (Respondent K).” Indeed, the logic posed here is that if a mature student is motivated enough to study nursing, financial and family problems would not have mattered. Otherwise, they would be considered demotivational factors that would diminish the efficacy of the current research title, since the focus of the study would now turn to them and how they affected the characteristics of mature students. Developing the Research Method Since the study was supposedly behavioral, there should have been a longer time frame or it should have employed the observational method. It is not accurate to just rely on questionnaire-based opinions or self-perceptions of mature nursing students, who could unintentionally exaggerate or understate their own experiences. Observing their behavior through empirical research tools, in addition to scrutinizing the academic records of mature students, could be very helpful in supporting the research aims. On the whole, however, the study does not appear to violate any ethical standards of research, though the inadvertent focus on the emotional challenges of mature nursing students brought about my family and financial difficulties diminishes the academic relevance of the research. Study Strength: Implications for practice Despite a few loop holes, the study’s implications for practice, or recommendations and insights, generally constituted the study’s strength. On the negative side, the researchers’ assumption that “mature students are motivated and academically successful” may have been too hasty. Based on the findings, most respondents stated that nursing was an earlier ambition they had postponed. In other words, the motivation was already a second try, which was a misnomer since earlier they clearly did not have enough motivation during their first chance and then were only motivated the second time around. For certain, there are mature nursing students who had equally strong motivations that unfortunately and inevitably died down because of circumstances beyond their control. Those who were first time mature nursing students during the study’s duration may have sounded motivated upon answering the questionnaire but who knew, perhaps later on, after financial and family problems became unbearable, they had contemplated on postponing the pursuit of nursing education following the conduct of the survey. The research also mentioned about the task of the government and universities to “provide more support to mature students to enable them to complete courses.” Such provisions could include financial support (i.e. loan grants or scholarships) as well as moral and emotional ones (i.e. seminars, lectures, and morale booster activities). This could have formed part of the study’s aims and objectives, but was instead placed as an implication for practice. Nevertheless, in this aspect, the researchers were able to point out the role of society’s foremost institutions. Public and private universities, as the researchers implied, should see to it that mature students are properly accommodated into the nursing curriculum and that the quality of higher nursing education should not suffer due to the lack of students. There must be coordination and cooperation between government and private academic institutions and current and potential mature nursing students. The third recommendation, “universities should develop part-time courses or co-ordinate semesters with the school year,” is very relevant to the needs of mature nursing students and perhaps for the betterment of the nursing education. Although it not clearly incorporated in the research aims, this implication for practice, if accepted by universities would open up more opportunities for growth and development to mature nursing students. After all, flexible time and more considerate schedules are definitely among the many things they need. Conclusion Mature students are significant to the meaning and quality of the nursing education, especially for the graduate studies, but Montgomery et al.’s research was not able to stress this out properly. From the title, to the research aims, rationale, claims, method, and results and findings, the research was quite ambiguous and inconsistent. It redeemed itself only in the implications for practice. However, even if the researchers were aware of what direction they wanted to take their study, they were unable to make it clear. The research could still be revised and improve on the ambiguous areas. Reference Montgomery, L. E., Tansey, E. A., & Roe, S. M. (2009). The characteristics and experiences of mature nursing students. Nursing Standard, 23 (20), 35-40. Nursing Planet. (2010). Nursing research: evaluating and critiquing nursing research. Retrieved from http://nursingplanet.com/Nursing_Research/critiquing_nursing_research.html# A.%20Qualitative%20research: Read More