Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Christopher Cale

Abstract

Higher education has responded to the nursing shortage by adopting academic and social support services that have increased student retention and promoted higher graduation rates. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of experiences that led nontraditional former Bachelor of Science in Nursing students at a career college to switch from their nursing program to another program within the first 2 years of college, which has contributed to the nursing shortage. This study also explored the perceptions of the participants about the influences, if any, that academic and social support services at the college had in students’ decisions to switch programs. Tinto’s student integration model of academic and social integration was used as a lens to explore the views of the participants. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with eight nontraditional former nursing students; analysis included open coding. Codes were categorized from which nine themes emerged: (a) participants expressed feeling overwhelmed, (b) lack of career pathway assessments, (c) intrusive advisor, (d) family support and encouragement, (e) an effective academic coach, (f) financial resources, (g) coping strategies and studying skills, (h) not participating in nursing program events, and (i) reliable vehicle. The findings of the study revealed that nontraditional former BSN students’ needs differs from traditional students. This study’s findings could bring positive social change by helping college administrators to understand that these nontraditional nursing students’ needs concerning academic and social support services are different from those of traditional nursing students.

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