Student achievement in the form of successful program completion is essential for the needs of the student, the program, patient populations and the healthcare workforce. The impetus for doing this study was based on the conviction from both faculty and hospital affiliates that students in the Respiratory & Anesthesia technology program at Vanier College are not performing to the high standards that they once did. Student success and the way to improve on it has been at the heart of faculty and clinical discussions for a number of years.
Ensuring that an individual has the capabilities to successfully complete the program in the requisite three years is a difficult process. This study sought to examine the possibility of establishing predictors that could be used, either in the pre program admission policies or during the course of study in order to ensure success through the program and beyond. The purpose of this study was multi-fold; to establish a definition of success, to determine whether a relationship existed between preadmission academic abilities and success and whether a relationship existed between professional behavioural aptitudes and success in the clinical year of the program.
The quest to establish a definition of success for a student in the Respiratory & Anesthesia Technology program led to some interesting revelations. From the focus group dialogue, it was clear that the concept of success did not simply imply
achieving greater than a specific grade. Even though a grade is the established measure of success in most educational institutions, this study shows that the notion of success is much more complex than the student achieving a grade greater than certain value. A student may garner very high marks but may not be effective in carrying out their tasks, in their personal work ethics and in their interpersonal relationships. A student needs to be competent not only in the cognitive and psychomotor but in the affective domains as well. This ultimately becomes the definition of success, however a measurement of all of its components is difficult to obtain.
To answer the first research question pertaining to preadmission academic scores and their relationship to success in the program, various research methods were used. Student success in the program was assigned a numerical value of greater than 77.5% by qualitative methods. As mentioned, the participants of the focus group did not feel that a numerical value adequately represented this question of success. Indeed the aspect of professionalism and attitude on the part of the student had much greater implications for success than a grade which is based on cognitive and procedural abilities. However, as grades are the only outcome measure available in the current educational system, only half of the cohorts could be considered successful (Table 11) as defined by the grade that the focus group assigned to success.
Table 11
Success as implicated by an assigned grade Student High School Grades Final Grades in the Program
#1 73.7 71.7 #2* 79.3 81.85* #3 77 67.15 #4* 83.28 87.3* #5 80 70.8 #6 82.71 77 #7* 82.71 80.55* #8* 96.92 80* #9 87.1 73.9 #10 80.3 76.47 #11* 82.4 78.4* #12 83.9 74.45 #13* 78.8 80.9* #14* 93.1 80.8* #15* 80.3 85.48* #16 71.9 72.1
* Denotes those students whose final marks would be considered successful A lack of correlation between preadmission high school grades and final grades was recognized using statistical analysis. While this ran contrary to the majority of findings in the literature one may be tempted to deduce that academic abilities may not predict success. While sample size, pre-program academic experiences and demographics may be used to explain this aberrant statistical finding, the qualitative research unearthed the possibility that non academic factors such affective abilities may have a tremendous impact on student success throughout the program, particularly in the clinical year.
The research related specifically to the second research question sought to understand how behavioural aptitudes influenced a student’s performance in the clinical environment. These findings may serve to give weight to the lack of correlation between academic grades in high school grades and final grades in the program. To ascertain success, there are more than cognitive or psychomotor skills to be measured. The behaviour assessment tool, as previously explained, scored the
students based on their affective abilities. Simply speaking - students who scored well on the behavioral assessment in fact did well as reflected by their clinical grades. One may extrapolate from that that students who could assimilate and socialize within the clinical milieu were ultimately able to perform well. Professional socialization of the student in the program and specifically within their clinical internship year may have a much greater influence on success than has been previously considered. Little research on this topic, particularly in the field of respiratory therapy education has been carried out and further study on this topic is warranted.
The impact of behavioral or affective abilities on success not only for a student in the program but for employed respiratory therapists in the field was the primary discovery of this study. Improving a student’s chance of success in the program may be related not only to academic and procedural abilities but also to affective abilities. It is recognized that teaching learners in the affective domain is more complex than teaching cognitive (facts, concepts and principles) or psychomotor skills (Neumann & Forsyth 2008). Further study is required to ascertain if behavioural competencies, that appear to be an absolute necessity for the profession, can in fact be taught within the context of a respiratory therapy program.
Completing the research, albeit on a small scale emphasized the necessity of selecting the candidate who is most likely to succeed in a difficult program such as respiratory & anesthesia technology and go on to become a competent practioner. The need to screen for the affective abilities of the potential student appears to have a greater impact than first suspected although this may be difficult to implement to a great extent within the constraints of the Quebec Cégep system philosophy and the Vanier College admission policies.
The behaviour assessment tool may prove useful as a means of identifying those students who may be at risk of failing in their clinical internship due to their
insufficient affective competencies. Remediation, in part, may increase a student’s awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and may allow them to implement strategies to address these areas.
Two issues may arise from this. Is it possible to ensure that a candidate enters the program with these skills in place and if so, will this become a good predictor of success? Is it possible to establish and teach appropriate attitudes and values during the course of the program of study?
Although these preliminary findings contribute to some degree to the existing literature concerning methods of predicting success in a respiratory and anesthesia technology program, much data is still unknown. Further quantitative research using a broader population base could substantiate the findings of this small study.