Causes associated with school failure in nursing students

Abstract

Background: School failure is the result of a process that stops, limits or does not accredit the progress of the student in his academic life. Student failure is a general phenomenon also known as "school failure", it’s described as the difficulty that some students have during the acquisition of knowledge, skills and aptitudes taught within the school itself, which materializes in low academic performance, student failure and in its extreme form in desertion. Aim: To identify the causes of student failure of undergraduate  nursing  students  of  the  University  of  Veracruz.  Method:  The  study  design  was quantitative, at a descriptive level, non-probabilistic sampling of 93 participants. The instrument used was “causes of student failure in college students”, which consisted of 35 items divided into three dimensions; the first attributable to students, the second to teachers and the third to the socioeconomic situation of the student. Results: The average age of participants is 22 years, mainly female participants. According to the causes attributable to students, 55% responded that they fail to organize their study time and to perform tasks when they are put under pressured. As for the causes inherent to the teacher, 46% say if to the lack of feedback, and 44% due do to the teacher-student relationship. Finally, concerning the socioeconomic dimension, 27% refer to the use of social networks as a cause of student failure, while 24% said they fail because they have to work in order to pay for their education and support their family. Conclusion: The authors conclude, the main causes of student failure among nursing students are for not being able to organize their study time, lack of teacher feedback and to have a job in order to support their family.