Expectations of postgraduate nursing students : an inquiry

Curationis 31(3): 44-50 Postgraduate supervision in South Africa currently takes place in the context of university transformation with a notable increase in concern for quality. The latter is determined by the extent to which students’ expectations within a supervisory practice are met. This study investigated students’ expectations regarding their research supervision in a postgraduate nursing programme. A 48-item questionnaire was mailed to 24 postgraduate students, o f which 22 (92%) responded, to determine their expectations within a supervisory relationship. Items in the questionnaire included students’ perceptions of the responsibilities of the institution, the department, the supervisor and students’ responsibilities regarding their supervised postgraduate studies in the School of Nursing Science. Descriptive statistics, namely frequencies and percentages for categorical data and means and standard deviations or medians and percentiles for continuous data, were calculated. Findings indicate that more than 80% of the postgraduate students in the study expected the university and the department to provide them with structures that would enable them to succeed in their studies. They also believed that the student had a major role to play in ensuring that studies were completed. Recommendations included making a code of practice for postgraduate supervision available to students and the use of a learning contract to clarify roles and expectations in the supervisory process. It was also recommended that supervisors should be trained to supervise students. Researcher: E Lekalakala-Mokgele


Introduction and problem statement
South African universities, like other universities throughout the world, are experiencing an increase in the number of postgraduate students.This increase is in line with the aim of the National Plan for Higher Education (NPHE) to increase enrolm ent and research output at master's and doctoral level.Within this grow th, challenges o f attrition and com pletion rates o f p ostgraduate students are becoming statistics o f vital concern due to several factors, namely the rapid transformation process in South African higher institutions, lack o f financial support and an increasing proportion of postgraduate students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds (Lessing & Lessing, 2004:74).There is general consensus that postgraduate students experience many hardships at the commencement of their studies, and that these difficulties delay completion or prevent students from completing their studies (Lessing & Schulze, 2003:159;Delamont, Atkinson & Parry, 1997:27).
Supervisors and students struggle with uncertainty and confusion, partly due to disjunction in expectations (Malfroy, 2005:165).Most students enter tertiary education with unrealistic expectations related to supervision.If these expectations are not met, most will discontinue their studies, which not only leads to a waste of their time but also their money.Universities also stand a chance o f losing subsidies w hen students discontinue their studies, since the subsidy for research at universities is influenced by their research output (Lessing & Lessing, 2004:73).The School o f Nursing Science of the North-West University has recently experienced an increase in the number of postgraduate students, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds.Ofi, Sowunmi, Edet and Anaraldo (2008:244) postulate that there has been remarkable growth in nursing research in the past four decades and that n u rses study research m ethods to acquire skills in research.Most o f the p o stg rad u a te nu rsing stu d en ts are m ature (in th eir th irties) and have com pleted their first degree through telematics, a distance-learning system (Bisschoff, 2001:228).These students are at a disadvantage as they lack sufficient experience in research according to Ngcongo (2000:211).Challenges emerge w hen ro les are not c larified and ex p e ctatio n s are not m et.R ole clarification is one of the most important requirements for enhancing supervisory p ra ctices.This study th erefo re in v estig ated the ex p ectatio n s o f postgraduate students registered in the m aster's program m e o f a School o f N u rsing.It was b eliev ed th at by determining the expectations o f these novice researchers, knowledge o f their expectations could be used for the purpose o f facilitating their throughput in their postgraduate programmes.The following central questions were asked:

Postgraduate student
Postgraduate refers to higher degrees, nam ely M aster's and Doctoral level (Lessing & Lessing, 2004:73).In this study postgraduate students are those that are registered at the university to study for a Master's Degree in the School ofNursing.

Supervisor
A supervisor is a critical friend guiding the student through the scholarly maze of doctoral examination and graduation (Pearson & Brew, 2002:139).A supervisor is an academic member with a research qualification who is allocated to supervise a postgraduate student.

Methodology Study design
A q u an titativ e, n o n -ex p erim en tal, descriptive design was used to collect data from postgraduate students in the M aster's programme o f the School of Nursing.

Population and sampling
The

Instrument used
A stru ctu red q u estio n n aire (s e lf completed) was used to collect data.A total o f 24 questionnaires was finally mailed to the participating postgraduate students registered in the M aster's programme of which 22 (92%) responded.C ontent v a lid ity w as en sured by submitting the questionnaire to research and education experts (Polit & Beck, 2004:422).

Data Analysis
SPSS software was used to analyse data.D escrip tiv e sta tistic s, nam ely frequencies and p ercen tag e s for categorical data and means and standard deviations or medians and percentiles for continuous data, were calculated.

Ethical issues
Included with the questionnaire was a consent form asking stu d en ts to participate in the study.The aim o f the study was explained, that participation was voluntary, and that anonym ity would be maintained by using codes only.It was further explained that only the researcher and the statistician would have access to the raw data.This study was conducted for quality purposes within the postgraduate programme and therefore ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the university's research ethics committee

The context
This investigation was conducted in the School of Nursing within the faculty of Health Science with a steadily growing number o f M aster's degree students.Full-tim e students were expected to complete the taught component and a dissertation within a year and part-time students within at least two years.Each student was allo cated a supervisor whose expertise was matched to the student's topic.A very high proportion o f the students w ere pursuing their Master's dissertation on a part-time basis due to their employment status.

Findings
Twenty-four (24) questionnaires were posted and a total o f 22 were returned, in d icatin g a 91.6% response rate.Characteristics o f the study population are discussed according to Table 1 and they include age, primary language used by respondents and whether they study full-time or part-time.
Table 1 represents the characteristics of 22 postgraduate nursing students in the sample.The sample comprised a diverse p o p u latio n o f stu dents who spoke different languages.20 (91%) o f the students' primary home language was indigenous African and 2 (9%) were English.The majority, 20 (91%), were over the age of 40 years and 95.5% of them studied part-time as they were employed full time.In this particular group of students 21 (95.5%) were female and only one was male (4.5%).This is typical of the demographics of nursing students in this profession (Parker, 2005:65).

Support structures within the university (N-22)
Perusal o f Table 2 reveals that some students seem ed to think th at the university was not responsible for assisting them with finances as indicated by 68.2% of the responses.However, 91 % were o f the opinion that the university should help them with the improvement of their language and computer skills.All o f the respondents expected to have access to the library w ith a skilled librarian.R elating to the School o f Nursing, 21 o f the students (95.5%) expected to be informed about what to expect in the Master's programme before em barking on th e ir studies.19 respondents 86.4% also expected to be provided with policy guidelines for supervision and academic support as well as information on which platform to use when in conflict with their supervisor.Another expectation mentioned by 20 (91% ) o f the students w as that supervisors should give them sufficient time to select their research topic.All students indicated that they should be informed about potential supervisors so that they could choose who should supervise them.They also expected to have supervisors who were trained to supervise them.

The role of the student
Expectations regarding the role o f the student are reflected in Table 3.These roles and responsibilities were said to be crucial for successful completion o f their studies.
Findings from Table 3 revealed that students accepted responsibility for their studies as almost all of them agreed that they should keep to dead lin es for submitting work, and should inform their supervisors if they could not honour appointments.All 22 (100%) respondents also agreed that they should take responsibility for contributing towards the development o f their proposals and fam iliarizin g them selves w ith all procedures and regulations concerning postgraduate supervision as well as accepting that supervisors should guide them and not tell them how to conduct their studies in a highly controlled manner.21 respondents (95.5%) believed that they should be held responsible for monitoring their own progress.Only 2 (9%) felt that it was not necessary to seek support from colleagues and that they did not need to attend formal classes on research.

Expectations related to the supervisor
Students indicated their expectations that were related to the role of the supervisor.They also stated their opinions of what they thought were not the responsibilities o f the supervisors.See Table 4.
According to Table 4 students expected some responsibilities to be apportioned to supervisors.All 22 (100%) expected the supervisors to guide and direct them in their studies and advise them on their progress and standard of work as well as provide them with the deadlines or completion dates so that they could submit their dissertations on time.18 respondents (81.8% ) w anted th eir supervisors to assist them with proposal writing and expected that supervisors should initiate meetings with them.21 respondents (95.5%) preferred to have a purely professional relationship with their supervisors, while 8 respondents (68.1%) wanted to select their own research topics and 59.1% stated that they did not want the supervisor to make the final decision about the appropriate theoretical framework for their studies.Results also revealed that 16 respondents (72.7%) expected supervisors to monitor their progress.Information about possible supervisors should be made available -

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n Í § o --w w Cl 52.C/3  et al. (2005:285) emphasize that while students are assured of support and help with difficulties that may arise during their candidature, the degree of responsibility and control should gradually shift from the supervisor to the student.This position is supported by Pearson and Brew (2002:140).The student needs to learn how to address the problems and the unknow n.Lessing and Lessing (2004:78) declare that supervisors expect their students to take ownership of their research.
The study showed that students had expectations regarding their own roles and those of their supervisors.and Lessing (2004:76) when they assert that students are aware of their educational rights and are more likely to dem and co m petent and ac cessib le su p erv iso rs.
T his demand will increase as m ore k n o w l e d g e a b l e postgraduate students such as academ ics co m p letin g th eir d o cto ral stu d ies increase (Denicolo, 2004:694), who will expect their supervisors to be competent.

Study limitation
T here w ere o nly 24 p o stg rad u ate students reg istered in the m a ste r's programme.These were students from only one university in South Africa, and with only 22 respondents, the findings cannot be generalized to other settings where postgraduate supervision takes place.

Recommendations
In view o f the findings o f the study, the following recommendations are made: A code o f practice for supervision of doctoral and research m a s te r's candidates should be available and made known to all, reflecting the following: Training of supervisors A learning contract should be drawn that c larifies the "ground ru le s " o f expectations and behaviour during the supervisory process.

Conclusion
Overall findings indicate that students have expectations which they believe are necessary to assist them w ith their progress in their studies.The quality of supervision is measured by the extent to which the needs and expectations o f postgraduate students are met.Unclear, co n flictin g and in com p atib le expectations of students are some of the reasons why postgraduate supervision is experienced negatively.Lessing and Schulze (2002:139) P ostgraduate supervision in SouthAfrican Higher Education institutions takes place in a context characterised by an increase in the number of students References A N D E R S O N , C ; DAY, K & M ACLAUGHLIN, P 2006: Mastering the dissertation: lecturers' representations of the purposes and processes of Master's level supervision.Studies in Higher Education.31 (2): 149-168.BABBIE, E 2004: The practice of social research.10lh ed.Australia.Thomson-Wadsworth Company.BARNACLE, R & USHER, R. 2003: A ssessin g the q u ality o f research training: The case of part-time candidates in full-time professional work.Higher Education Research & Development.22 (3)345-358.BISSCHOFF, C A 2001: Customer service o f a telematic learning BBA degree.SAJHE.21(4)228-223.BOUCHER, C & SMYTH, A 2004: Up close and personal: reflections on our experience o f supervising research candidates who are using personal reflective techniques.Reflective Practice.5 (3): 345-356.BURNS, N & GROVE, SK 2005: The practice of nursing research.Conduct, critique and utilization.5thEd.Elsevier Saunders.St Louis.D EEM , R & BREH O N Y , K 2000: Doctoral students' access to research cultures: Are some more unequal than others?Studies in Higher Education 25(2) 149-165.DELAM ONT, S, ATKINSON, P & PARRY, O 1997: Supervising the PhD -A guide to success.G reat B ritain.Buckingham: SHRE.D E N IC O L O , P 2004: D octoral supervision of colleagues: peeling off the veneer of satisfaction and competence.Studies in Higher Education.29 (6): 693-707.DENICOLO, P & POPE, M 1994: The postgraduates'journey-An interplay of roles.In Ryan and Zuber-Skerritt (Eds) Quality in postgraduate education.. 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Table 1 :
Characteristics of the study population

Table 3 :
Expectations regarding the role of the student Expectations cannot be separated from responsibilities.The literature explains the roles of supervisors in terms of such responsibility.It is common for the supervisors to take more responsibility in terms of guiding the students at the beginning of their studies especially in master's degrees as these students need more structure and support.Thompson

Table 4 :
Expectations related to the supervisor state that clarity about the roles and re sp o n sib ilitie s o f supervisors and students is o f utmost importance.Wiskers et al. (2003:385)