Non-academic factors as predictors of success in the first year of an undergraduate nursing course

Academic entry qualifications of nursing students have been shown to be unsatisfactory in the prediction of academic success in undergraduate nursing courses. For many students, non-academic factors will be extremely important for academic success. Therefore, in this study, non-academic factors and their relationship to academic performance in the first year of an undergraduate nursing course were investigated. The study uses quantitative methodology to investigate this relationship. The non-academic factors were grouped into categories: demographic data, social characteristics, vocational choice, gender characteristics and self-efficacy. Bandura's (1977; 1986) theory of self-efficacy was used to develop a research tool.