title: An evaluation of an attendance monitoring system for undergraduate nursing students.
abstract: Internationally the preparation and ongoing education of nurses continues to evolve in response the changing nature of both nursing and health care. The move into third level structures that has taken place in countries such as the UK and the Republic of Ireland, results in new challenges to the historical fabric of nurse education. One such challenge is monitoring of nursing students' attendance. Viewed by students as a patriarchal and draconian measure, the nursing profession historically value their ability to ensure the public and professional bodies that nursing students fully engage with educational programmes. University class sizes and the increased perception of student autonomy can negate against formalised monitoring systems. This paper reports on an evaluation of one such monitoring system. The findings revealed that attendance was recognised implicitly by nurse educators as an important learning activity within these programmes results and that current methods employed were less than reliable and so did little to appropriately control the phenomenon. Subsequent to the evaluation; a standardised approach to the measurement of absenteeism was employed. Deliberate short-term absence was a feature of this group. Reasons cited included travelling long distances, dissatisfaction with programme timetables and personal reasons. Preventative measures employed included improvement in student timetable delivery.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, 24 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Timmins
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tobin
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Doherty
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000379:methods; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D011996:Records; D012579:Schools, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom