Exploring the relationship between grit scores and academic potential in baccalaureate nursing students

Background

An ongoing nursing shortage poses significant challenges to the healthcare industry, prompting nursing education programs to find ways to increase nurse graduates. Unfortunately, the problem of attrition in nursing education is significant. Despite many years of attrition research, educators still seek to find answers to determine what factors cause some students to succeed and others to fail in nursing programs. Noncognitive variables, like grit, have been largely overlooked as potential solutions to the problem of attrition.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which grit predicts academic potential in baccalaureate nursing students.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included a total of 63 baccalaureate nursing students in their first semester of a four-semester nursing program at a mid-sized public university in East Texas. Participants took an electronic survey reporting demographic information, completing the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S), and consenting to release of their pre-admission science grade point average (sGPA), ATI Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) exam scores, and first-semester nursing GPA (nGPA).

Results

When added to sGPA and TEAS scores, grit scores were not a statistically significant predictor of nGPA. Students with high grit scores were just as likely to experience attrition as those with low scores, and grit did not statistically significantly predict first-semester attrition.

Conclusions

Nurse educators are encouraged to pursue strategies to address attrition in nursing education. Traditional selection criteria of sGPA and TEAS exam scores were shown to be predictors of nGPA. Additional research is warranted to explore the relationship between noncognitive variables, especially grit, and nursing student academic potential.