Correlation Between Academic and Clinical Practice Performance of Nursing Students at a Pediatrics and Child Health Nursing Course; Mizan-Tepi University, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Members of the nursing profession face problems in relating knowledge with practice. However, there was no study on the correlation between academic and practice performance of pediatrics nursing in Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Mizan-Tepi University using 396 nursing students’ academic and practice achievements on a pediatric nursing course. SPSS version 21.0 was used for analysis. Spearman’s rho correlation (r(s)), one way ANOVA, independent t-test and determination coefficient (R(2)) were computed at p<0.05. RESULTS: The academic performance was strongly correlated with practice performance of the 2015 (r(s) (394) = 0.7, p<0.001) and 2017 (r(s) (394) = 0.7, p<0.001) batches of regular students. However, there was a moderate correlation between academic and practice performance for the batch of 2016 regular students (r(s)(394) = 0.43, p<0.001). There was a moderate correlation between academic and practice performance of the 2015 (r(s) (394) = 0.6) and 2016 (r(s) (394) = 0.51, p<0.001) batches of summer students. Linear regression analysis showed that academic performance explained 17.9% to 44.1% of variability in practice performance of the regular students. The linear regression analysis also showed that academic performance explained 26.5% to 41.2% of the variability in the practice performance of summer students. Independent T-test revealed significant mean performance difference by admission type (academic (t (144.7) = 6.43, p<0.001) and practice (t (115.5) = 5.71, p<0.001)). The mean performance difference significantly varied with sex both at academic (t (394) = 3.38, p=0.001) and practice (t (394) = 4.57, p<0.001) levels. CONCLUSION: There was a moderate to strong correlation between academic and practice performance. In addition to academic performance, variation in practice was also explained by other factors which deserve more study. Enhancing academic performance can further increase practice performance. In general, the achievements of regular and male students at pediatrics was statistically significantly higher than their counterparts. Hence, female and summer nursing students deserve extra support from nurse educators to enhance their performance.