Exploring Belongingness in an Accelerated Nursing Program: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Accelerated baccalaureate nursing programs have proliferated to meet the demands of the current and projected nursing shortage. While these programs serve an important function, accelerated nursing students face unique challenges related to fast pacing, content-heavy courses, and swift transition into complex clinical learning environments. These challenges, coupled with the realities of a strained nursing educator workforce, are potential threats to learning environments that are supportive of students’ academic tenacity and social belonging. While a clear link between nursing students’ positive sense of belonging and their success in clinical learning environments has been established, there is scant research looking at the impact of students’ self-perception of belonging in academic nursing education contexts. The aim of this project was to explore the student experience of belongingness in an academic nursing education setting. A qualitative approach influenced by phenomenology and phenomenological analysis was used. Seventeen students from an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program volunteered as participants. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. Three central themes emerged from the interviews: a) belongingness matters to students; b) belongingness is constructed and understood by the individual; and c) belongingness is relational and contextually situated. Additionally, participants described a number of experiences that they believe enhanced or facilitated belongingness. This study adds to the literature by confirming that accelerated nursing students perceive social belonging as important in supporting their motivation, well-being, and confidence in their developing nursing identity in academic, as well as clinical, education settings.