Purpose: Nurse faculty are responsible for educating the next generation of nurses, yet little is known regarding what prelicensure BSN students perceive as faculty support, and the effect that faculty support has on their success. Styles of education have changed; nursing education has moved from faculty-centered practices to approaches that are centered on student learning (Valiga, 2012). Education should be guided by the elements that make students successful.
The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify which behaviors by faculty prelicensure BSN students’ perceive as supportive.
The following research questioned was examined in this study: What are nursing students’ perceptions of faculty support?
Methods: In this study, faculty support was measured using the Shelton’s Perceived Faculty Support Scale (SPFSS). The SPFSS is composed of two subscales to measure students’ perceptions of faculty support. These subscales include functional and psychological support. Functional support provides direct assistance and facilitation of learning, whereas, psychological support provides a caring atmosphere and a strong student-faculty relationship (Shelton, 2003). Both of these subscales include items that contribute to an array of behaviors that students might find helpful. The behaviors that constitute functional support include providing academic assistance to students, communicating clear expectations, presenting information clearly, clarifying information, giving helpful feedback, and serving as role models. The behaviors that constitute psychological support include caring, understanding, encouraging the student, demonstrating an interest in the student, listening, and being open to differing points of view (Shelton, 2003).
Results: Descriptive statistics were obtained on the subscales of the instrument. The possible range of scores on the psychological support scale; ranged from 14 to 98 with a midpoint of 56; scores from this study ranged from 41 to 98 with a mean of 80.41 and a midpoint of 69.5. The possible range of scores for the functional support scale were 10 to 70 with a midpoint of 40; scores from this study ranged from 28 to 70 with a mean of 53.93 and a midpoint of 49. Participants in this study rated all items on the SPFSS greater than the midpoint of 3.5, with some behaviors scoring higher than 6.0. These findings were consistent with empirical findings in the literature that described what students identify as either supportive or ideal teacher behaviors (Hagenauer & Volet 2014; Monteiro, Almeida, & Vasconcelos, 2012; Shelton, 2003; Trammell & Aldrich 2016). There were no differences between year in school when it came to behaviors that students perceived as supportive.
Conclusion: The results of this study aligned with the literature that reports that students’ perception of faculty support or ideal teacher behaviors impact student learning. This study shows how psychological support provides an environment that is conducive to learning and positively impacts academic self-concept while promoting academic success. Students enter a nursing program and find that it may be much harder than expected. The time demands are significantly more than those of their non-nursing counterparts. When faculty, motivate students by being approachable, encouraging, and instilling confidence, students look to the faculty member as a role model and learn and behave professionally. There is a direct relationship between faculty support and academic success. Students who perceive that they are supported by faculty have increased academic motivation, academic self-concept, and higher GPAs.