English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) nursing students' perceptions of academic support services and their academic performance

One Northeastern Community College (NCC) nursing program addressed the need for more graduate nurses by increasing the retention rates of their already-admitted and qualified nursing student population. Increasing the English as a Second Language (ESL) student population's retention rate was paramount because less than 40% of this population had been successful in completing the nursing program (Schuler, 2009). Applying Heifetz's Adaptive Leadership Model and Cummins' Model of Language Acquisition, support services were developed to increase the retention rates of ESL nursing students. The purposes of this qualitative generic research study was to: (a) determine what the perceived effects specific support services had on the academic goals of the ESL nursing students at NCC; (b) which support services were perceived by the ESL nursing students as most helpful and why; (c) which support services were perceived by the ESL nursing students as least helpful and why; and (d) how the number of years speaking English, speaking English in the home, and the age of the student when s/he learned to speak English were perceived by the ESL nursing students as influencing their ability to be successful in completing the NCC nursing program. ESL nursing students in their first and second year of the NCC nursing program and past graduates were invited to participate. Of the 55 invitations, 15 students agreed to participate in a 20-30 minute researcher-designed phone interview. The support services that were perceived as the most helpful in this study were the free Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with Nursing Central, a group of three textbooks (drug, lab value and nursing diagnosis) loaded on them and one-to-one faculty support. The support services perceived as least helpful were study groups and negative attitudes of faculty. All participants felt that the younger a person was when they learned English and the more years speaking English had a positive effect on success in the nursing program. Speaking English in the home was also seen as helpful but some felt it was better for their children to speak their native language at home so the children remained bilingual.