Desperately seeking consistency: Student nurses' experiences and expectations of academic supervision

Academic supervision - the support available to students when writing assignments - is a fundamental element in the provision of support within nurse education. Not only can it underpin high levels of academic achievement, but it also has a role in enhancing the retention of students. Despite its importance, there is little investigation of undergraduate academic supervision within the nursing literature.

To explore students' experiences and expectations of academic supervision as part of an undergraduate programme of nurse education.

A qualitative approach to explore student perceptions.

The research was undertaken at a Higher Education Institution in the United Kingdom. The institution offers undergraduate nurse education programmes to approximately 800 students.

Eight pre-registration nursing students from a Bachelor of Science programme participated in a focus group interview. All were in the first semester of their final year.

Data were collected using focus group interviewing, based around a semistructured question framework. The focus groups explored students' expectations and previous experiences of academic supervision. The focus group was recorded, responses were transcribed and thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key findings.

Three themes were identified from the data: relationship with supervisor, variation between supervisors, and the link between supervision and marking. Overall, students identified frustration with variability in the provision of academic supervision.

Effective academic supervision depends on a strong relationship between student and supervisor - something that can be difficult to achieve if supervision is only for a short period of time. Equally, students crave a consistent approach to supervision, in terms of both the amount and content of feedback. Students are able to identify and articulate a clear link between effective supervision and academic achievement.