A DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSONAL SOCIAL AND SCHOLASTIC BACKGROUND OF NEW STUDENTS FIRST ADMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF NURSING SCIENCE AT MEDUNSA IN 1986 , AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS REGARDING THIS UNIVERSITY

Introduction In the past few years the comprehensive biographical questionnaire completed by all students newly admitted to M EDUNSA at the beginning of the academic year, provided valuable information regarding students of the Department of Nursing Science. The main purpose of this study is to obtain a profile of nursing students, enrolling at Medunsa for the first time, regarding — their demographic data — the sociological, economical and educational tendencies in their homes — their school achievement and — their expectations of Medunsa. This information may in future serve to • compare students’ expectations of Medunsa with actual experiences • compare nursing students with students in medicine and supplementary health services • provide a base-line for monitoring professional growth. The questionnaire samples details about the newcomers’ personal, social, and scholastic backgrounds and achievements. In addition, the students’ expectations of university life in general, and of this university in particular, are gauged. Presently the survey serves to provide the university authorities and lecturers of the Department of Nursing Science with information about the persons who presented themselves as new students for that year; their background and expectations. The survey also provides nursing students with a channel for communicating their expectations to the Department of Nursing Science and university authorities. The present Report is subdivided into four parts: In Part A an image is given of the personal backgrounds of the students who presented themselves for the first time at Medunsa in 1986. In part B, background information about the schools from which these students came is provided, as well as inform ation about their subjects and performances at school. Part C covers the newcomers’ expectations of life at this University in respect of lecturers, fellow-students and student life in general. Part D contains a summary of all the findings of this investigation. Throughout all four parts of the report, the findings are juxtaposed to those obtained from a corresponding survey done on all students during 1985.


Introduction
In the past few years the comprehensive biographical questionnaire completed by all students newly adm itted to M ED U NSA at the beginning of the academic year, provided valuable inform ation regarding students of the D epartm ent of Nursing Science.
The main purpose of this study is to obtain a profile of nursing students, enrolling at M edunsa for the first time, regarding -their dem ographic data -the sociological, economical and educational tendencies in their homes -their school achievement and -their expectations of Medunsa.
This inform ation may in future serve to • com pare students' expectations of M edunsa with actual experiences • com pare nursing students with students in medicine and supplem entary health services • provide a base-line for m onitoring professional growth.
The questionnaire samples details about the newcomers' personal, social, and scholastic backgrounds and achievements.In addition, the students' expectations of university life in general, and of this university in particular, are gauged.
Presently the survey serves to provide the university authorities and lecturers of the D epartm ent of Nursing Science with inform ation about the persons who presented themselves as new students for th at year; their background and expectations.
The survey also provides nursing students with a channel for com m unicating their expectations to the D epartm ent of Nursing Science and university authorities.
The present Report is subdivided into four parts: In P art A an image is given of the personal backgrounds of the students who presented themselves for the first time at M edunsa in 1986.
In part B, background inform ation about the schools from which these students came is provided, as well as inform ation about their subjects and perform ances at school.P art C covers the newcomers' expectations of life at this University in respect of lecturers, fellow-students and student life in general.
P art D contains a sum m ary of all the findings of this investigation.
T hroughout all four parts of the report, the findings are juxtaposed to those obtained from a corresponding survey done on all students during 1985.

C om position o j the 1986 sample
The sample consisted of students who registered in nursing courses at M edunsa for the first time during the m onths of January to M arch 1986.Only 'new students' are included in the sample.Students repeating their first year courses in 1986 have been excluded, as they completed the questionnaire in 1985.
The sample comprises five male and fifty female students.O f the first year students, 18 came to M edunsa immediately from high school, or after a lapse of only a fairly small interval.
The other 37 are students in post-basic Nursing Science who came to further their skills and knowledge in their chosen profession, usually after having worked as a registered nurse for a period of not less than two years.Some have many more than two years experience.

Gender distribution
The percentages of m ale and female students, adm itted during the period Jan. to M arch 1986, are as follows; The percentage of male students adm itted for the first time increased from 7,4% in 1985 to 9,1% in 1986.
The m ajority (90,9%) of first admission students in 1986 were females.The m ajority (80%) of male students in nursing courses enrolled for the B Cur course.This concurs with findings in 1985.
A g e distribution Table 3 gives the age distribution of the two subgroups of 1986 nursing students separately, as well as the age distribution for the total group.The mean age of B C ur I students is 18,6 years com pared to the mean age of 30, years of the post-basic students.

M arital status
Table 4 shows the percentages of single and married students am ongst the 1986 intake of new students.As can be expected all students who are or have been m arried are post-basic students who are on average 11,4 years older than the B C ur students.

P arents'presence in the fa m ily
The proportion of students' parents who have been reported by the students as to be either living, or deceased and divorced or separated appear in Table 5.   W hen com paring the two subgroups, the mean numbers of brothers a n d /o r sisters at hom e indicate that the younger group of students (B C ur 1) come from smaller families (mean = 3,4) com pared to the older post-basic students (mean = 4,4).As in the previous year the m ajority of students (50,9%) occupies the middle position in the family.The second strongest group represented the eldest child in the family.Twice as many B Cur I students (50%) have brothers a n d /o r sisters at university com pared to the post-basic students (24,3%).

N u m b er o f brothers and sisters at university
The percentage of B Cur I students who have brothers a n d /o r sisters at university have increased from 17,6% in 1985 to 50% in 1986 whereas the percentage of postbasic students have decreased from 29,5% in 1985 to 24,3% in 1986.

P arents' educational levels
The levels of education of the fathers and m others of all the newly registered nursing students are given in Tables 9.1 and 9 • the education level of 83,8% of fathers as well as mothers is lower than Std.10.

P arents' occupations
The distribution of the occupations of parents of the newly registered nursing students is given in Tables 10.1 and 10.2 hereunder.
The findings show th at no fathers resort in the professional category.
The percentage of mothers whose occupation fall within the first six categories is higher for the younger B Cur I students (37,7%) than for the older postbasic students (9,6%).
The largest percentage of fathers in categories 1 to 6 occupy posts in adm inistrative (10%) and helping services   1.9 1.9 1.9 3.8 1.9 54 I 55 availed themselves of to enable them to enter upon their studies at Medunsa.On arrival the m ajority of B Cur students are supported by their parents (47,1%) whereas the majority of post-basic students are self-supporting (62,2%).

P art b P R O V IN C E /LO C A T IO N O F SCH OO L W H ERE STU D EN TS M A T R IC U LA TED
Table 12 indicates the districts of the schools where the new students who came to M edunsa this year m atriculated.O f the 96,2% of students who m atriculated in the RSA the m ajority of both subgroups m atriculated in the Transvaal (54,7%).A verage percentages obtained in fin a l school exam inations Tables 13.1 and 13.2 (Page 11) reflect the average percentages and symbols obtained in matric exam ination.The average percentage obtained by the B Cur I students (55%) is higher than the average obtained by post-basic students (49,9%).
This may indicate a num ber of phenom ena such as: • an improvement in standards of Black secondary teaching over the past decade • a better/ more positive reference to nursing by teachers • higher status/desirabihty of entering in profession.The percentage of B Cur I students scoring more than 50% per subject is consistently higher in all subjects than that of the post-basic students.These figures concur with the figures in Table 13

Stan d a rd repeated at school
Table 14 (Page 11) show the num ber of respondents who had to repeat some year(s) in prim ary or secondary school.Each of the 23,5% of B C ur I students who had to repeat a class at school had to repeat Form 5.
A smaller percentage of post-basic students (19,3%) had to repeat a class at school in com parison with the B C ur 1 students (23,5%).This could possibly be due to: • higher standards of evaluation in the past decade • external factors such as unrest and stay aways.

Part c STUDY H O U R S PER DAY (See Table 15)
The majority of students (52,7%) expect to devote about one hour per day per subject to study.(See Table 16) The higher percentage of students, 72,2% B C ur I and 55,6% post-basic 4 students who expect personal attention to their problems and aid even after hours may be due to: • expectations of a pedagogic approach as implemented at school level instead of the andragogic approach at universities • coming from their parents' home (B Cur I) • having a low self-image (See Table 17) The m ajority of the B Cur I students (55,6%) look forward to life in a students' residence com pared to only 18,9 of the post-basic students.
Post-basic students (45,9%) mostly view life in a students' residence as possibly interesting although they have their doubts.(See Table 18) The majority of students (69%) in both subgroups feel that the organization of student life in residences should be the shared responsibility of students and the M atron/B oarding Master.(See Table 19) The m atter that concerned most students of both subgroups was whether they would be able to study effectively on their own.students (55,6%) expect personal attention to their problems even after hours.3.3 M ore B C ur 1 students (55,6%) than post-basic students (18,9%) look forward to life in a students' residence.3.4 The m ajority of students (69%) feel that the organization of student life in residences should be the shared responsibility of the students and the M atron or Boarding Master.3.5 The m atters of greatest concern to the students were, as in 1985, firstly whether they would be able to study effectively on their own and secondly, whether they would be able to cope with intimidation.
to be supported by their parents (47,1%) or that they require a loan (23,5%

C
urationis Vol.11, No. 2, July 1988 T A B L E 5. P A R E N T S L IV IN G , D IV O R C E D OR S E P A R A T E D , A N D D E C E A S E D (N Sources o f financial assistance to first year students Table 11 overleaf indicates the sources of financial assistance the students have Curationis Vol.11, No. 2, Julie 1988 TABLK I I .S O U R C E S O F FIN A N C IA L A S S IS T A N C E (N = 54) Posl-basic N u n in g Sc T A B LE 13.2.SY M B O I.S A C H IE V E D IN V A R IO U S SU B JE C T S IN T H E FIN A L SC H O O L EX A M IN A T IO N S N U R SIN G S T U D E N T S ' V IEW S ABOUT O R G A N IZ A T IO N O F S T U D E N T LIKE IN R E S ID E N C 14. C L A S S E S R E P E A T E D BY N U R SIN G T A B LE 16.P E R S O N A I. A T TEN T IO N BY N U R SIN G S T U D E N T S AT S< H O O L (N = 48) S T U D E N T S F R O M L E C T U R E R S (N TABMC 19.R A N K O R D K R O F M A TT K R S T H A T NEW N U R SIN G S T U D E N T S FE A R M O ST A BOU T L IF E IN A ST U D E N T R E S ID E N C E : 1986 V E R SU S ). O f the post-basic students 62,2% are self-supporting which includes paid study leave from the D epartm ent of National Health and Welfare followed by loans (10,8%).When the total group of 1986 students is com pared to that of 1985 the figures indicate: • an increase in fmancial support by means of parents (from 18,5% to 30,8%) and bursaries (1,9% to 30,7%) • a decrease in loans (from 14,7% to 1,9%) and self-support (from 42,6% to 23,1%).When com paring matric results the B Cur I students as a group obtained a higher average as well as higher marks for all subjects.2.3 The proportion of students who have M athem atics and Physical Science has increased tremendously since 1985.2.4 M ore B Cur I (23,5%) than postbasic students (19,3%) had to repeat a class (year) at school.All of this percentage of B Cur students had to repeat matric.3. Students' expectations of M edunsa 3.1 The m ajority of students (52,7%) expect to devote one hour of study per subject per day.3.2 A great proportion of B Cur I (72,2%) as well as post-basic This report, reflecting the personal, social and scholastic backgrounds and expectations o f new students adm itted to the Nursing Science D epartment o f M edunsa, will in fu tu re he used to compare these students' expectations .with their actual experience o f life on the cam pus as well as fo r comparison with similar data o f students adm itted in the fo llo w in g years.Science D r H. M .de Vetta B ureau f o r S tu d e n t D e v e lo p m e n t a n d A d vice M E D U N S A P r o f C. F. van N iek erk, D r I. T readw ell D ep a rtm en t o f N u rsin g