Abstract

Living-learning communities, although not a novel concept, have been known to promote student performance and a sense of collegiality. Because nursing is essential to the medical profession, nursing student retention and pass rates are of paramount importance. Attrition tends to happen to nursing students in their first formative years (Newton & Moore, 2009). Therefore, this study was conducted to explore findings associated with living arrangements and residential factors promoting and deterring retention. Although most studies on this topic have utilized quantitative methods, this qualitative comparative case study, involving two universities in Indiana during the winter of 2014, examined the personal experiences of 14 students residing or having resided in a nursing-themed living-learning community. The investigation searched for themes in mentoring and explored if and how mentoring was used. A symbiotic relationship was found among the various themes identified revealing that the dynamics of the living-learning community offer a strong network for mentoring and promoting the academic, social, and personal development of the nursing student that, in turn, promotes retention and program completion. Additionally, the resident assistant in the living-learning community was found to be of central importance in sustaining the positive dynamic. Implications for practice that are thought to be of most use in carefully building and sustaining a living-learning community were derived from the themes.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3639815; ProQuest document ID: 1621506626. The author still retains copyright.

Authors

Renee N. Bauer

Author Details

Renee N. Bauer, PhD, MS, PMHNP-BC

Sigma Membership

Lambda

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Grounded Theory

Research Approach

Qualitative Research

Keywords:

Nursing Student Retention, Nursing Student Performance, Sense of Collegiality, Mentoring, Living Arrangements

Advisors

Kiger, Susan||Tinnerman, Larry||Hal, Lea

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

Indiana State University

Degree Year

2014

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2022-02-25

Full Text of Presentation

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