Why do some nursing students find their science courses difficult?

A sample of undergraduate nursing students were allocated, according to their results in the first nursing science exam, to one of three groups: "successful," "unsuccessful," and "middle." The sample was surveyed about the perceived difficulty of their science course and reasons for the difficulty. The responses of the three groups were compared for significant differences using the Kruskal-Wallis H statistic. The successful group was significantly different from the unsuccessful group in a number of responses to the questionnaire. Students in the unsuccessful group perceive that their science course is difficult, have a low opinion of their ability in science, and are not convinced of the relevance of their science course to nursing.