Students’ Entry Qualification and Academic Performance in Basic Schools of Nursing in Enugu State between 1995 and 1999

Ngozi P. Ogbonnaya, Perpetua O. U. Okpuruka, Peace N. Iheanacho, Afam Ndu

Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu, Nigeria.
School of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Federal Neuropsychaitric Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.
University of Port Harcourt, Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2014.510084                

Abstract

This study was a descriptive study of the correlation type, carried out to find out the relationship between entry qualification and academic performance in two basic schools of nursing in Enugu State, South-East, Nigeria, between 1995 and 1999. The study retrospectively examined the scores of a sample of 390 nursing students. Data were O’ level GCE/SSCE Grades, representing the entry qualification; and the final pre-qualifying examination result scores, representing the final academic performance collected from student records and analyzed based on the formulated hypotheses. Pearson’s product-moment Coefficient of Correlation and t-test were used to compare performances. A positive correlation which was statistically significant was found between entry qualifications and final performance. One of the schools performed better than the other, while science- based students performed better than non-science-based students. It was recommended that relevant regulatory bodies should ensure that prospective student nurses get credit passes in all the basic sciences as part of the requirements for admission.

Keywords

Academic Performance, Entry Qualification, Schools of Nursing

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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