title: Navigating through Turbulence in the Nursing Talent Pipeline: A Constructivist Grounded Theory of Academic Success in Polytechnic Nursing Education.
Creators: name: Sharda, Harroop Kaur
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Undergraduate nursing education
subject: polytechnic education
subject: academic success
subject: grounded theory
subject: qualitative research
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Education--Higher
subject: Education

description: The nursing profession is experiencing increasing challenges related to student retention, program attrition, and entry-to-practice preparedness. A significant proportion of new graduate registered nurses in Canada are exiting acute care roles early in their careers. Polytechnic nursing education in Canada focuses on preparing nurses to enter practice, primarily in acute care hospital settings, where the workforce shortages are sizeable and growing. Transition to practice challenges are muti-faceted, however, they are inherently tied to undergraduate nursing education in nursing. Considering several polytechnic nursing programs in Canada have committed to student seat expansion, there is a need to understand how students experience a academic success, as defined by using a multi-faceted conceptualization, in this underexplored context. Academic success in undergraduate nursing education, is predominantly examined using narrow measures of what it means to be successful. Grade point average and program completion as outcomes dominate the existing research literature, however, academic success in undergraduate nursing education is multi-faceted. Competence for entry to practice is not measured solely based on grades, therefore, research related to investigating this phenomenon requires a comprehensive framework as the starting point for inquiry. In an aim to address these gaps, this grounded theory study explores how undergraduate nursing students in non-university-affiliated polytechnic nursing programs in Canada navigate the complexities of achieving academic success. Using constructivist grounded theory, this study integrates interview data with theoretical sampling from open online discussion forums to co-construct a substantive theory of navigating turbulence in the nursing talent pipeline. The resulting theory conceptualizes academic success as a dynamic and iterative process influenced by institutional structures, personal strategies, and social networks. This study also highlights the methodological implications of integrating data scraping from online discussion forums as a novel approach to theoretical sampling in grounded theory research. This research identifies key recommendations to support nursing student success in polytechnic institutions across institutional, social, and personal levels. The findings highlight strategies to enhance educational experiences, optimize resources, and foster environments that promote both program completion and readiness for entry-to-practice and presents considerations regarding education policy changes that support equitable and sustainable approaches to polytechnic nursing education. Additionally, this study offers novel insights into the use of online discussion forums as a data source to expand concepts derived from participant interviews, applying grounded theory tools to deepen theoretical development. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on nursing education, academic success, and professional preparedness, offering a practical framework to inform curriculum development, institutional policies, and student support initiatives in polytechnic nursing education.