Solutions to causes attempting on the academic performance in the second year of the Nursing Degree Course

Abstract

The academic performance is an indicator of great importance to all those professionals directly dedicated to teaching, for the control of teaching quality in any educational level, mainly in high education and the Cuban medical university. A cross-sectional, descriptive research was carried out with the aim of identifying solution alternatives to the possible causes attempting on the quality of the academic performance of the second-year students of the Nursing Degree Course in the Medical Sciences Branch “Eusebio Guiteras”, in the municipality of Colon in 2010-2011 school year. The universe was composed by 85 students and 12 teachers. The sample, 31 students and 10 teachers, was simple randomly chosen. The brainstorm technique was applied, taking into consideration ethical considerations. The obtained criteria were the base for designing the DAFO Matrix, a method of solution alternatives to the identified problem for a future solution. It was concluded that the causes attempting on the low academic performance are associated to the professors´deficient teaching-methodological training, the insufficient students´ assistance to classes, difficulties with the printed bibliographic material for students, the inobservance of the law decree 91 on the part of the administration where the student works, double working day (at work and at school), family problems and home obligations, reducing the time for studying the contents received in the different matters of the course. Solutions were proposed for each of the aspects related with the academic performance.