Perception of Factors Responsible for Delay in Successful Completion of Postgraduate Programme in Nursing Sciences Department, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.

ABSTRACT There is increased demand for nurses with higher degree to man the existing Department of Nursing to meet both the National University Commission and the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria student teacher ratio of 1:10 and 1: 6 for basic and post basic Nursing programmes. However, the completion rate required to meet these demand is low. This study was conducted to determine the perceived factors responsible for delay in successful completion of postgraduate programme in Department of Nursing Sciences, UNEC. Four objectives were formulated and the significance of the study was to provide useful information to enhance timely completion of postgraduate programme in the Department. The design was descriptive. Population consisted of all registered postgraduate students from 2003/2004-2010/2011 and approved supervisors. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using percentages, mean and Standard Deviation. 4 points Likert scale was also used and the decision rule was based on mean score of 2.5. Result showed that the major personal factors that contributed to delay in completion were conflicting roles competing with academic work (mean 3.15); not satisfied with the way the programme is organized and no study leave granted for the programme had the same mean of 2.91. For the supervisors, the major personal factor was that, most of the students lacked knowledge in research work (mean 3.67). The main environmental factor that contributed to delay was interference of job with academic work (mean 3.00). For the supervisors, the major environmental factors were that students combined work with their academic studies (mean 3.12) and that most of the students live and work outside Enugu (mean 2.83). The major institutional factors were that library was not adequately equipped (3.24) and too much work load for lecturers (mean 3.22). For the supervisors, they equally indicated that there was too much work load from undergraduate to postgraduate programme with a mean of 3.33. There was no association between demographic (age, marital status and years of experience) and students completion of studies. Based on the findings it was recommended that, students should see both the course work and dissertation as an entity and not separate programmes. The Departmental library should be well equipped with computers and adequate classrooms provided. The supervisor-student relationships should be built on effective communication and the supervisors should be mentors to their supervisees.