Effect of Mentoring on Learning Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The concept of how students learn is an important topic in education and crucial for improving the students’ quality of  learning. This brings about an increasing interest by policymakers and educators in how to encourage students learning. The study  aimed to investigate the effect of mentoring on the learning skills of undergraduate nursing students in north-western Nigeria.

Methods  and Materials: Quasi quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. The intervention was mentoring on learning skills, and  learning skills were assessed before and after the intervention as pre-test and post-test respectively. The population of the study is  undergraduate nursing students in the four departments of nursing sciences in north-western states, Nigeria. The required sample size  was obtained using systematic sampling. Dennis Learning skills inventory was used for assessing the respondents' learning skills, while the mentoring action plan was used to deliver the mentoring intervention.

Results: The pre-intervention excellent and very good levels of  learning skills had the lowest aggregate mean percentages. The pre-intervention aggregate mean score was 2.06 (In maximum of 5).  The highest post-intervention learning skills of the respondents were mostly around excellent, very good and good. The post-intervention  aggregate mean score was 3.39. There was a significant difference between pre-intervention learning skills and post- intervention learning skills, P<0.001 with an effect size of 0.7.

Conclusion: Mentoring is effective in changing the way nursing students  learn from inadequate learning skills to adequate learning skills.