A qualitative study of freshmen's and academic advisors' perspectives on academic advising in nursing

Abstract

Many universities have established academic advisor schemes so that academic advisors play a proactive role in supporting freshmen, helping them to achieve both academic goals and personal and professional aspirations. This research aimed to explore freshmen's and academic advisors' perspectives on the academic advisor scheme of a nursing school. A total of 79 participants (74 freshmen and five academic advisors) were recruited to participate in this qualitative research. The freshmen participated in a focus group interview, with 6-10 freshmen per group, and the academic advisors participated in an individual in-depth interview. Both expressed their perspectives on academic advising in four domains: (i) relationship building, (ii) academic development, (iii) personal growth, and (iv) professional goals. Most of the freshmen were satisfied and indicated that they had benefited from the academic advisor scheme, suggesting that academic advisors played a significant role in advising and supporting them. However, the results showed that relationships between freshmen and academic advisors should be further strengthened.

Keywords: Academic advising; Freshmen; Nurse education; Qualitative study.